Clay of the Earth
by roxas07
Summary: Being a prodigy is hard work, but not wanting anyone to hear you just makes it harder. Sora loves his friends but will this fear of rejection stop him from finding his true love? SoraRiku.
1. Pushing Ivory

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, though sometimes I wish I did...

Clay of the Earth

Life was never as easy as one expected it would be on the islands. I found this out at an early age, but I also learned that life was possible with the help of my friends. We've been together for as long as I can remember. Riku is the tall one on the right. His long silvery hair was second only to his aquamarine eyes. That's what I loved about him the most: the fact that his eyes reminded me of the ocean. Riku and I have been friends since the day I was born. His mom and my mom were friends and Riku came to visit me in the hospital on the day of my birth. Of course, he was only one year older than me so he doesn't remember it, but our mother's remind us of it all the time. That's probably why he's my best friend because even when I was just born, I didn't cry when he was in the room. Kairi is the one on the left. Her short red hair and cute face always got her whatever she wanted. That's okay though, because whatever she smooth-talked some older boy out of, she always shared with Riku and me. She would still be our friend though, even if she didn't get us free ice cream and candy. That's me in the middle. I wish my hair were a bit longer, but Riku always says, "Sora, your hair is fine just the way it is. If it weren't that way, you just wouldn't be Sora." These are my friends. I'm glad they were with me, and that we shared the sun, sand, and waves together for so many years. This is my story. A story of pain, growth, betrayal, but most importantly, love.

Chapter One:

Pushing Ivory

Sora awoke with a start and looked at the clock.

"6:00 am," he thought. "Who could invent something worse than 6:00am in the morning?"

The chocolate-haired boy slumped out of bed and lazily pulled on some old, torn jeans and a green t-shirt. It was the last day of summer vacation and his welcoming to his high school career was a 6:15 am call time at the beach to watch the sunrise.

Despite the early hour, Sora practically yelled the first thought that entired his spiky head, "Why couldn't we watch the sunset instead?"

"Sora! It's six in the morning! Keep it down!"

"Sorry, Mom!"

Suddenly remembering the entire reason he was up this early, Sorayelped and stepped into his flip-flops before sprinting down the stairs and out the front door. His mother shook her head as she heard the door slam. It had been hard for Sora to finish middle school without Riku.

"He'll be fine now that he's with Riku again," Lily thought. "Hopefully."

Finally catching sight of the beach, Sora decided he could slow down a little and started searching for his best friend. Noticing a tall mar in the still black horizon, Sora's face immediately sported his patented grin.

"Riku!" The spiky-haired teen yelled.

Riku never missed a beat and replied with a simple statement as always,"Sora, there are people trying to sleep." 

"Well, if you didn't get mu up this early, that wouldn't be a problem, now would it?"

"High school starts tomorrow, you nervous?

"No, because I know you'll be there for me, like you always are."

"You're not even a little nervous? Sometimes you're a little too carefree."

"And you're a little too annoying, bringing me here before anyone else is up. I mean if you had invited Tidus and Wakka we could have at least played blitzball."

"But then I wouldn't have had this time with you. Tidus and Wakka would have just been nuisances."

Sora's cheeks were immediately fused with red at the thought that the older boy wanted to spend time with just the incoming freshman. Luckily, Riku wouldn't have noticed the blush rush over Sora's face because at that exact moment the rays of old Sol pierced the royal blue ocean and the two boys watched the spectacular sight in awed-silence, both happy that they were seeing this with the other. Nothing could have made this moment better.

x x x

"OMIGOSHSORAITSOURFIRSTDAYOFHIGHSCHOOLCANYOUBELIEVEIT?"

After that gleeful assault of words on the now speechless blue-eyed boy, Selphie immediately went on to explain her schedule and what she expected of all of her classes. She bounced with fervorand anticipation for theupcomingday.Kairi was listening intently, and Sora meandered along not even attempting to follow Selphie's bombardment of thoughts on teachers none of them had even seen. In the middle of her speech, Riku appeared and whispered into Sora's ear, "She hasn't changed since last year has she?"

Giving a small yelp from the scare that Riku brought with his breath on Sora's ear, the younger boy proceeded to give the iciest glare he could muster. Riku burst out into laughter,which brokeSelphie's train of thoughtonlymomentarily before she started babbling again. Riku lived for the morning walks to school with his friends, just to see them laughing and enjoying themselves. He had missed the walks for an entire year, but at least he would have the next three to make it up.

Kairi was the first amongst them to notice it.

"LOOK! It's our new school!" Was all that could be heard for miles, as the red-head screamed as if a fighter jet had just released its afterburners.

"Kairi hasn't lost her touch either, I see," Riku stated quietly to Sora.

It's not as if the chocolate-haired boy wasn't slightly excited aboutthethought of high school,but he just didn't reach the level ofexcitement thatKairi and Selphie did.

The four of them walked in the front doors of the school. The hustle and bustle of students attempting to find their classes and teachers just hoping to make it through the hallway alive was overwhelming for the three freshmen. Riku was accustomed to it, though, and he laughed inwardly while watching Sora's mouth gape open. Although there were several different colors of shirts, all of the students wore the same khaki pants, which created an optical illusion that was sometimes mesmerizing. This was the curse ofattending a private Catholic school.

Selphie snapped out of the trancethe school had left on them. She grabbed Kairi's hand and rushed off in the direction of their first class. Thankfully, Selphie had spent hours the previous night mapping out the two girls' classes and knew exactly where she was going.

Sora wasn't as prepared as the other's though. Sure he had his schedule in his backpack, but he hadn't taken the time to look at it yet. 

Riku simply grabbed his best friend's hand and led him down the intricate hallways to Sora's first class.

"Sora, it's usually a good idea to at least know what classes you're taking."

"I was just planning on going to random classes throughout the day and seeing if I like them."

Riku smiled and gave a chuckle before commenting on his friend's lighthearted attitude, "Have fun walking into the middle of a blitzball match then!" 

The silver-haired teen ruffled his best friend's hair as he imagined Sora walking into the middle of a blitzball match. The ball flying everywhere and Sora standing alone and confused in the middle of the court. That would be a site to see.

"Here's your first class of the day. Don't forget that your schedule is in your bag. I'll be waiting outside your classroom before lunch to walk with you. Have a great time, Sora!" Riku advised his companion as he began walking away.

But then, almost as an afterthought, Sora called back to Riku, "Hey Riku, what would I do without you?"

"Probably get hit with a lot more blitzballs."

x x x

First period flew by without a problem and Sora found Riku waiting outside the cocoa-haired boy's class.

"I thought you would meet me before lunch, what are you doing here?" Sora questioned with large azure eyes.

"I just wanted to see how everything went in your first class in high school," the teen asked, running his fingers through his long silvery tendrils. "How was it?"

"Meh, Sister Mary Louise is cute but boring like nothing I've ever done."

"First off, her name is Sister History, and secondly, you learn that you can sleep through her class and still ace it," Riku said with a chuckle.

"Good because I'll need an extra hour of sleep," but once the brown-haired boy said that all he heard from his best friend was laughter.

Breaking his laughing spree with some struggle, Riku commented, "You get nine hours of sleep on a regular basis, how could you possibly need more sleep?"

"I don't do mornings, Riku. You know that."

Sora was dismayed when his older friend stopped outside a classroom with computers lining the walls.

"This is your Modern Technology class," Riku informed.

"Did you memorize your schedule AND my schedule?"Sora inquired.

"Yeah, pretty much," the older teen threw out carelessly.

"Hey, Riku."

"Yeah, Sora?"

"Thanks."

"It's what I do," but after saying that the silver-haired teen didn't expect the spontaneous embrace that came from Sora.

"You're the best."

"Have a great class, Sora," Riku said; glad that the younger of the two couldn't see his red cheeks.

x x x

Riku escorted his best friend to his next three classes and finally to lunch.

"I didn't know if I was going to make it or not," Sora declared in an exhausted voice.

"I'm sure you're just wasting away right now," Riku teased.

This was nothing new to Sora, so he just brushed off the joke and began his destruction of his poor lunch. Selphie, Kairi, Tidus and Wakka joined the two and Sora didn't know what could be better.

"Hey, Sora, wanna go hang out at the beach after school today?" Riku quietly asked, while Selphie conquered the conversation and described every minute detail of her first four classes to everything that had an ear.

"I can't. You know I've got piano lessons on Wednesdays."

"Why do you even take lessons? You're a prodigy; you don't need to go to lessons. You're just naturally good."

Sora's pallor at the comment was unmistakable; Riku had slipped up, and he knew it.

"I mean, from what you're teacher has told me, of course. I've never actually heard you play. No one has."

It was true. Sora was a genius when it came to the piano, though the boy had never played for anyone but his instructor. Well, that's what the coffee-haired boy thought at least. What he didn't know was that last year Riku had walked in on Sora playing the Firebird Suite. It was an intricate piece assigned to the spiky-haired boy because of the detail it required when playing. The aquamarine-eyed teen stopped dead in the foyer because he knew his best friend hated to be heard, and even though he knew this piece of information that would ruin their friendshipe, Riku stood there frozen, listening. As Riku listened to the music, he dared not to even blink, thinking that he might be noticed. Sora could be heard breathing harder and harder as the suite picked up speed and volume, which started making the oldest of the pair nervous. Riku slowly moved into the doorway and watched the boy as his intensity increased until Sora hit the climax of the piece. The silver-haired boy could feel the heat of the bird falling on his neck. He didn't want to turn around for fear of a gigantic phoenix standing behind him, ready to devour him with its flaming plumes. Riku's anxiety was brought to a halt almost immediately when Sora quickly regressed back into his calm self finally reaching the ending theme of the piece. The aqua-eyed teen noticed that his hands had been clenched and he was sweating slightly, but more importantly, that when Sora had begun to finish the piece, Riku immediately felt a cool rush of water over him. The silver-haired teen immediately noticed why the boy was considered a prodigy. Sora was considered a prodigy because he breathed life into the piece he played and made a living creation just by pushing the ivory keys, not because the cocoa-haired boy had picked up the Firebird Suite for the first time right before his friend had walked into the room. 

Sora never knew that he had been heard by Riku that day. The flames of the Firebird had melted thefear-frozen teen in just enough timeto silently step out of the house. Riku strained his ears and heard the barely audible finishing chords and pushed the doorbell as the prodigy closed the music.

"I go to piano lessons because I want to get better and I like it!" Sora practically yelled, quickly bringing Riku back from his memory. The memory sat in the silver-haired teen's head with something of a residue. When he had first thought of it, it was clear and precise, as if Riku's senses had been hyperactive that moment. The aquamarine eyes brought back every aspect of the room to view; the way one picture was slightly crooked over Sora's head; how the scent of the fresh cut lilacs in the kitchen pierced through the air without being overpowering; howRiku's mouth went completely dry from the intense heat brought on from the fierce pheonix brought to life by his best friend. It was a wonder that the lilacs didn't die from the heat. 

"Whatever," the sophomore spat out dejectedly, noticing that his palms were wet from the flash back of Sora's playing.

"How 'bout I meet ya there afterwards?" The pianist compromised.

"Well, you still owe me."

"I owe you for everything today, can't we just forget this one?"

"We'll see how I'm feeling when you get there tonight."

And with that, Riku ruffled his best friend's hair and stood up.

"Well, it's off to you next class, Sora, let's go!" The aquamarine-eyed teen declared.

"WHAT! Why can't lunch be just a little bit longer?"

"Because then you wouldn't stop eating and you'd lose that great girlish figure of yours."

With that last joke, Sora stood up, blushing, and quietly followed his best friend away from the laughing table.

x x x

Sora played softly as the music called for but with each passing note he applied more pressure to the black and white keys. His heart-rate increased and droplets of sweat were forming on his temples. Nothing would stop him from finishing the piece, even though he looked so uncomfortable. If the Apocalypse came and the Four Horsemen were at the door, they would just have to wait and find solace in the music as he played. He barely even looked at the sheet of music in front of him as his fingers whisked across the keys and landed in various positions. This went on until the chocolate-haired boy was finally playing in a full forte; the boy looked like he was having a panic attack until he finished the piece. His teacher looked at him with awe, despite the fact that she rarely showed any emotion. She sometimes even came off cold.

"Well done, Sora. You've certainly mastered this piece. How many times did you say you practiced it?" Asked Fran.

"Only twice. Though the first time, I thought someone walked into the room so I stopped playing." 

"You're going to have to get used to playing in front of people other than me eventually. I have big plans for you."

"I just can't. I can't even play when my mom is home."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. I feel like they people listening will judge me and will think I'm bad," the boy explained.

Fran had expected as much. Despite her young appearance she had taught many students, including the prodigy's father. The woman knew just how to deal with Sora for that very reason. His father couldn't play in front of anyone either for the longest time, though he had kicked the habit by high school when he figured out how amazing he actually was, and with a little of Fran's help. The white-haired teacher looked at her pupil and reassured, "Sora, people will always judge you, but you're too amazing for them to think you're a poor pianist."

"Well, I still don't want to do it."

"How about we work on this problem a little by little? Don't you want anyone to hearhow you bring the music to life?"

"Well, there is one person, he's my best friend."

"Then we'll invite him to a lesson and you can play in front of him." Fran suggested calmly.

"NO! I COULD NEVER PLAY IN FRONT OF RIKU!" Sora screamed, foiling Fran's composed nature perfectly.

"And why not?" Fran queried.

"Because I'm not good enough to play for him," the prodigy stated under his breath.

"Sora, even if you aren't good, your best friend will always support you. Luckily, you aren't good."

"I'm not?"

"No, you're fantastic," and after assuring the teen it would be okay, the tall, white-haired piano teacher handed a piece of music to the boy.

"Have this ready for next week. It should be no problem for you, so bring Riku along also."

"I…I…"

"If you don't I'll call your mom and tell her to bring him along and they can both listen to you play."

Sora was not the fool most people took him to be. Playing in front of two people was much worse than playing in front of one.

"Okay, I'll bring Riku, I promise," and after saying goodbye, Sora stood up, hit is favorite note on the piano, and walked out of the house.

"What a silly little boy," Fran thought to herself, smiling as she waved goodbye.

x x x

Riku was becoming impatient. He didn't mind waiting for his best friend, it's just that he knew Sora's lesson was over fifteen minutes ago and his lessons were held just a couple of blocks away from his house. Sora should have been there by now. 

Riku would have left to go find his blue-eyed friend but decided to wait just a little longer. Sora could get behind schedule sometimes, whereas Riku was a very punctual person. Sora was just carefree like that and that was something Riku had learned to live with. The ocean reminded Riku of all of the fun times he had had there with his friends. Playing blitzball, making sandcastles, hiding in the secret spot from various people that they pulled pranks on; a smile crept onto Riku's face as he gazed at the ocean. Of course, the smile grew wider when he heard Sora running towards him and screaming his name.

"RIKU!" The younger teen yelled at the top of his lungs. "DON'T LEAVE YET!"

"Do you see me walking away, Sora?" Riku questioned in a teasing voice.

"No, but I was worried you wouldn't see me and you would walk away. That's why I was yelling your name," Sora answered innocently.

"Well, now you owe me even more, for making me wait." Riku's smile turned into a mischievous grin when he said this.

"I already owe you for the two hundred other things you've done for me and things I've done against you. Is there one thing that I can do that would make it all up to you?"

"I've been thinking about that and I came up with something…" the silver-haired boy said slyly.

"What? Tell me! Tell me, Riku!" Sora pleaded.

"You're not gonna like it," Riku replied, knowing that this would push his cocoa haired friend over the edge.

"It doesn't matter; I just want to know how I could repay you. I'll do anything!"

Riku thought about that last comment for a while.

"Anything?" The aquamarine-eyed teen thought to himself. "I could ask for a kiss on the lips, but he wouldn't want that." Riku studied his best friend with hungry eyes. "No, Sora is too innocent. I can't ask for anything that he doesn't want to do yet. I have to let him come to me, unfortunately." And after that last thought Riku decided to go with something less daring.

"Okay, well, I want you to play the piano for me."

"Have you been talking with my piano teacher lately?"

"No, why?"

"Because she's forcing me to bring someone to my next lesson to play for them and I chose you."

Riku blushed at the fact that he was chosen out of everyone in Sora's life to hear the pure hearted teen play for the first time. Luckily, the sun was on Riku's side this time and began to set at the very moment that the sophomore's face turned bright red, melding with the various hues of orange, yellow, and red.

"Seriously? I actually get to hear you play?" The older boy burst back into life after processing the information he had previously received. 

"I never agreed, ya know," the blue-eyed boy teased, his eyes contrasting perfectly with the sunset.

"But you owe me," Riku replied. He didn't like forcing Sora to do things unless it would benefit his best friend and he felt a tinge of guilt after hearing a sigh come from Sora. "It's okay, Sora, you don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, I'll be fine. But you have to promise that you won't make fun of me if I suck, okay?"

"Sora, I would never make fun of you for doing something that you love so much."

"Just promise."

"I promise. But I highly doubt you'll 'suck' as much as you say you will."

"Thanks, Riku."

"Anything for you, Sora"

The two boys smiled and watched the quintessential sunset before walking home, smiling ear to ear the entire time.

x x x

Ha, i'm still getting used to this, and i'm not sure if i like all of the mushy stuff in this chapter (and chapters to come...lol), but hopefully someone will. this is my first time writing and publishing something, so please be kind. that is to say, tell me what i'm doing wrong in a nice way. other than that, i should have a couple more chapters up later. i'm not sure how long chapters are normally supposed to be. but we'll say that this one will probably be normal size for this story, ok? well, i hope you like it! OH AND PLEASE SEND ME REVIEWS! i need all the help i can get! thanks! aloha oe!


	2. Memory's Playground

AUTHOR'S NOTE: this chapter contains mature themes such as implied child abuse. DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT LIKE IT. i will not be held responsible for you reading something that you know you don't like. thank you. 

Disclaimer: i don't own anything kingdom hearts related, unfortunately...

Chapter Two:

Memory's Playground

The gang was all there, and the sun had just risen as they made their way to their second day of high school. Selphie was her usual overly-perky self and discussing the same classes she had told everyone about yesterday. Sora and Riku held back a little and talked almost silently so Selphie wouldn't be disrupted and rant about how rude the two teens were. 

"It's going to be like this until the day we graduate," Sora whispered to Riku.

"Yeah, well, when I get a car, we can drive everyday so we won't have to hear it."

"Then I'll just owe you more for saving me from Selphie."

"Nah, you'll keep me company, so it evens out," Riku clarified with a smile.

The day went by just like the first, and every time a class ended, Sora spotted Riku waiting outside to escort the cocoa-haired teen to his next class. Sora was beginning to enjoy school again, because his best friend was always there for him. It was like they were back in middle school when the two boys were nearly inseparable. Sora had despised his eighth grade year when Riku's absence brought about a small bout of depression. Sora's shining face lost its luster; the brilliant sapphire eyes forgot how to sparkle. Nothing was worse in Sora's mind than reliving that dreadful last year of middle school. The school day concluded without event and the boy with the silver hair didn't want to go home just yet.

"Hey, Sora, do you mind if I come over and hang out for a bit?" The oldest of the pair inquired.

"Well, my mom is out for the afternoon and I had been planning to practice while she isn't home. You can wait outside while I practice the piece I'm going to play for you though," Sora replied. The spiky-haired boy was already fretting about next week's piano lesson with Riku, and he wanted the piece he was preparing to be perfect for his older friend. "I should only be about ten minutes," the blue-eyed boy added feeling sorry for his friend.

"Sure, but you owe me," his best friend stated, comforting Sora with a smile.

"Okay, I'll give you a coke, and I need this practice, because I want this piece to be perfect for you."

"I'm sure you'll be amazing," Riku assured as they approached Sora's front door.

Sora pulled out his key, which took some time because the twenty different key chains attached to the lonely key all got caught on the various objects in the sky blue book bag. Finally unlocking the door, Sora led his friend through the house and into the kitchen, where the cinnamon-haired boy pulled out a soda for his friend.

"You can wait outside on the swing set, and I'll come get you when I'm done, okay?" Sora clarified.

"Sure, just don't forget about me," Riku teased back.

"Like I could ever forget you, Riku," Sora replied quickly and with a smile. The younger boy's comment made Riku blush just as the back door was shut and locked.

Riku walked over to the small swing set he and Sora had used as children, but had long since abandoned after finding a part of the beach no one ever ventured to for some reason. The silver-haired teen sat on one of the pair of swings and wondered what piece Sora was working on for him. Riku set his drink down and began to swing back and forth. With each swing forward, each creak under the teen's weight, each rush of air from the momentum Riku was building, memory after memory rushed back to him. The first one to come to mind was his favorite memory and concerned that very swing set.

_Sora and Riku were five and six respectively, and Sora's mom had just gotten him the swing set. Sora was scared of the swings at first, but when Riku came over, the silver-haired boy convinced his friend that there was nothing to be scared of as long as he was there to help him. It was a gorgeous island day and after swinging, talking and giggling for about fifteen minutes, Riku let go of the chains and flew _

_through the air, his hair following him like silvery water attached to his scalp and landed gracefully a few feet from the swing._

_"WOAH!" Sora exclaimed, wide-eyed at how cool his friend was. "How did you do that?"_

_"Just let go and you'll fly, that's all there is to it," Riku instructed with a sense of pride._

_"Ok, here I go," and with that comment as small as the person making it, Sora let go of the chains, and was soon flying through the air. The pair of crystalline eyes soon came to the realization that something was wrong and that he was going to land and probably break something. Riku immediately noticed the concerned look on his friend's face. Not even thinking, the silver-haired boy leapt forward and with a giant crash, the blue-eyed boy was lying on top of his best friend, without a scratch on his body._

_"Riku," Sora said after lying there for a minute or so._

_"Yeah, Sora?"_

_"I hope you're always there to catch me."_

_"I would never let you fall, Sora."_

Riku glided out of his favorite memory into a less desirable one, as if the swing set had its own agenda in mind for what Riku should remember.

_It was a clear autumn day and Riku was sauntering home from Sora's house where he had been all afternoon. Riku never liked going home after being with Sora, especially since the home he was going to was the absolute worst place on Earth to the eleven-year-old boy. A frozen tundra looked like paradise compared to Riku's household. Riku pulled out his house-key, which only had one simple keychain on it, a metal wing Sora had bought for him the previous summer on the perky boy's trip to the mainland. Opening and closing the door as softly as he could and then removing his bulky shoes, Riku just wanted _

_to make it to his room unnoticed. He walked through the living room where he saw his father passed out on the couch with several beer cans around him. The silver-haired teen shot a look of disgust as he quietly made it to the other side of the room. Riku looked back and sneered at his father whose long, silver tendrils were thrown off the end of the couch in disregard and his muscular form visible through his open black shirt. Riku was just glad that he didn't have to face the arctic azure eyes while his father slept. Riku hated his father's eyes. They were neither the warm, brilliant blue that Sora possessed nor the mysterious, dark cobalt that his own mother had owned. His father's eyes were a horribly bright teal, not quite blue but not quite green. The aquamarine-eyed boy loathed his father for the indecision in his eyes. Riku was repulsed that his father's eyes were more spectacular than his own, and his father never let Riku forget that._

_"You're finally home."_

_Riku was in the doorway and wheeled around to see his father barely conscious, knocking beer cans around the path to clear a path to his son._

_"You took enough time getting home," Sephiroth slurred together, barely able to keep his balance. Riku was pleased to find that his father couldn't open his eyes all the way due to the afternoon light. _

"_I went over to Sora's house after school, like I always do, Dad," Riku replied coldly, but still containing control over his emotions. The adolescent hated the smell of beer on his father's breath. Ever since Riku's mom had died two years ago, Sephiroth's breath seemed to permanently stink of cheap beer._

_"That little queer? You shouldn't hang out with him, he'll turn you into a faggot too," Sephiroth declared, not entirely comprehending the pointed look he was receiving from his son. _

_"Sora is my best friend, it will stay that way even if he is gay," Riku replied, anger rising in him. This topic was not new to Riku, but the silver-haired boy never let anyone degrade his best friend and get away with it._

_"You'll be friends with who I tell you to be friends with, dammit!" Sephiroth was about to explode, which was exactly what Riku wanted. "And no son of mine will be friends with a faggot."_

_Sephiroth could degrade Riku to his heart's content, as far as the boy was concerned, but he never let anyone insult Sora. Sora was too innocent, too pure to be talked about the way Sephiroth did. Riku knew his father had to be pushed over the edge and that this was the optimal time to do it._

_"I will always love Sora more than I love you!" Riku screamed._

_"You will regret that, boy!" Sephiroth declared in return._

_Riku's father towered over the boy and the man was in surprisingly good shape too. Luckily, it was the aquamarine-eyed boy's size and agility that helped him escape most of the time and Sephiroth was drunk which only played in Riku's favor. The small boy slipped under his father's thrusting arm and slammed his foot on Sephiroth's before proceeding to run to the front door. The boy grabbed his shoes and backpack on the way out, reminding himself to thank his teachers in class tomorrow for the small amount of homework he had that night. Rushing out of the door, he heard crashes and bangs all the way down the street. Riku smirked as he pictured Sephiroth falling over furniture and crashing into walls, his silver hair tangling more and more as he tried to make it to the door. Riku made it to Sora's house and rang the doorbell almost twenty times in quick succession. His younger companion answered the door out of breath from running to get it and with a confused look that Riku often saw._

_"Did you forget some…?" Sora started but never finished as he looked deep into his best friend's eyes. Lily came to the door to see what the commotion was about and her previous annoyed look ran off her face after she saw Riku standing with fear in his eyes._

_"Get in the house now, Riku," Sora's mom commanded calmly, though her crystalline eyes blazing. "Sora, take Riku into the living room, and I'll make you guys some food for dinner."_

_Sora never exactly knew why Riku had been coming over like this for the past two years, but it was just more time to spend with his best friend so he never thought much of unexpected visits. The cinnamon-haired boy deserved more credit than people gave him, though. The boy had known from the first time Riku had shown up on his doorstep like this that something was not right. Sora had always wanted to know what happened, in case the boy could save his friend from some unknown danger, but Lily had constantly warned her son not to bring the matter up, no matter how much he wanted to help._

_"Here you guys go!" Lily exclaimed as she entered the living room with a tray of food. Riku beamed when he saw the platter. Sora's mother knew the way to Riku's heart and it was through PB and J's and chocolate milk as dark as Sora's hair. The two boys ate while they watched television and chatted the whole time. Lily stood in the door frame watching the inseparable pair, pleased by the fact that Sora was the first person Riku came to when he was in trouble._

_Riku slept at Sora's house that night, though Lily noticed that neither of them actually slept much because she could hear bursts of laughter well into the morning._

_"Did you two forget that you have school and I have work tomorrow?" Lily question standing in Sora's doorway watching the two boys play-fight on Sora's floor._

_"But Mom…" Sora started, but never finished seeing the sapphire fire in his mother's eyes._

_"You both need sleep, now go to bed," Lily said firmly, but smiling._

_Sora's mother turned off the light, and walked back to her own room._

_"Hey, Sora," Riku said after he was certain Sora's mom couldn't hear._

_"Yeah, Riku?" Sora whispered to his best friend._

_"Thanks for catching me today," Riku simply replied._

_"Anything for you, Riku," Sora said, smiling even though he knew his best friend couldn't see it._

Sora walked out of the backdoor of his house to find the silver-haired teen on the long-forgotten swing set. Riku jolted slightly as he was brought out of his memories by the sight of the spiky-haired brunette, and with one fluid motion, Riku released the chains he was gripping and gracefully landed inches away from his companion.

"I'm done, but you don't have to stop swinging if you don't want to," Sora started, his sapphire eyes contrasting against the spectacular sunset, yet again.

"I'd rather spend time with you. And I was just thinking anyways. I wasn't really aware I was swinging so high," Riku replied, not sure if he had caused the blush on Sora's cheeks or if it was just the lighting. The two friends walked inside and raided the refrigerator before settling down on the couch ready to watch television. Lily pulled into the driveway during the end of the blitzball match and was concerned when she heard screams coming from the house. Her worries dissipated, however, when she burst into the house to see the two teens bouncing around over the apparent winning point. Nothing made her happier than seeing the two boys together.

x x x

Sora jumped out of bed.

"IT'S FRIDAY!" Sora exclaimed and heard an audible groan from Lily down the hallway.

Sora loved Fridays. It was the one day of school he could truly appreciate, because although he went to school, everyone was always buzzing with excitement for the weekend. The buzzing in the hallways filled the cocoa-haired teen with delight, but the fact that Riku almost always spent the night over was the source of the majority of the blue-eyed teen's happiness. Never knowing why his best friend spent the night every Friday, Sora only remembered that Lily had suggested it after Riku appeared on the doorstep with bruises and cuts covering his body. Sora's innocent mind had never wished pain on anyone, except for the person who put Riku in that condition. Not questioning Riku was the only statement Lily ever divulged to her son, while she reminded the cinnamon-haired boy that his friend would open up when he felt the need to do so. Sora wasn't fond of this answer, but he didn't want to upset Riku in his fragile state, so the crystalline eyes showed agreement with his mother's wishes.

"Don't worry, Sora," the teen heard vividly in his mind's ear, while walking to the Secret Spot to meet his friends. "Riku will open up and when he does, you'll be the first to know." The patented smile filled Sora's face at the memory.

"What's that silly grin for?" Sora heard the familiar voice calling to him. Spinning around, Sora spotted his best friend walking towards him and the smile only grew.

"I'm smiling because it's Friday, Riku! And you're coming over tonight!" The spiky-haired teen was bouncing at the thought. The two walked to school together, joking and teasing even when Selphie and Kairi joined the pair.

The four arrived at the school and split into their respective directions. Riku and Sora chatted on the way to their first period class, managing to bob and weave their way through the hordes of students.

"Hey, Riku, I never asked what your fist period class is," Sora brought up after the two had been silent for a while.

"It's band, and always will be," Riku replied carelessly, not noticing Sora's wince at the fact that two could never have first period together.

"Why is it always first period?" The younger boy continued.

"Because when we start marching next week, we show up to the field an hour earlier. The football team uses the field after school, meaning the only extended time for us to practice is early in the morning or late at night when the team is done practicing," the silver-haired boy explained. Sora instantly remembered that Riku had missed an entire week of summer for band camp but the blue-eyed boy had never questioned his friend about the subject.

"Wait, so you have to get up even earlier?" Sora yelled with sudden realization.

Riku chuckled at his friend and stated, "You don't have to wake up to walk to school with me, you know."

"But I want to be with you," Sora replied without thinking. This simple comment made Riku blush fervently and the aquamarine-eyed boy was grateful when the bell rang.

"Don't worry, Sora, I'll always be here for you," Riku affirmed calmly as his companion walked into the classroom.

"Thanks, Riku," Sora replied with a smile.

"Anything for you, Sora," Riku stated, returning the smile.

x x x

"OKAY!"

Sora awoke with a jerk, along with the rest of the class, wondering who had made the loud declaration.

"Since all of you decided to fall asleep, I'm going to assign a project for you to do, due on Monday. You will work with one other person, and you will have the rest of the class to work on it," Sister History stated in an authoritative tone that the class didn't know she could muster up. The elderly nun then let everyone break up into pairs. Sora panicked. He didn't know anyone in the class and 

everyone was finding their groups fast. He looked around and felt a tap on his shoulder, making him yelp in the middle of class. Turning around slowly to see who had frightened him, Sora saw before him a blonde-haired boy with sharp facial features and eyes that made the spiky-haired boy uneasy.

"Hi, I'm Seifer," the boy stated with a grin.

x x x

woah, there's a lot that happens here! well, i like to give little snippets of a person's past here and there, so expect the flash backs a lot. i think i've figured out the most effective way for me to transfer everything that's done so far, so expect a few more updates this weekend maybe? idk, it's easter and i'm busy so who knows. oh, and fun fact: i posted this because i was mad about getting kicked out of my chem lab today, so you should all thank Purdue's Chemistry department and their crappy rules. that's all! REVIEW PLEASE! ok, that's my plea for the chapter. aloha oe!


	3. Cheshire Cats

Chapter Three:

Cheshire Cats

"Hiya! I'm Sora," the brunette greeted, perking up after noticing he had found a partner.

"You're Riku's friend aren't you?" Seifer questioned, his eyes blazing with the possibilities his new partner brought.

"Yeah, Riku's my best friend. You know you look like the Cheshire Cat when you smile like that. You know, the one from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Sora whispered as Sister History began assigning sections for each group to teach to the class. Apparently the whisper wasn't as quiet as the spiky-haired boy thought it was because he heard several people snicker at the innocently intended comment.

"Well, then I guess I won't smile anymore," Seifer said with a scowl on his face at his new partner.

"Oh, I didn't mean it as an insult. I like the Cheshire Cat. He's quirky. Anyways, how do you know Riku?" Sora inquired.

"I had concert band and math with him last year," the blonde stated carelessly, calculating his every move.

"OH! I didn't know you were a sophomore. You look a lot younger than that. I wouldn't even think you were a freshman. What instrument do you play?" Sora continued to question.

Seifer chuckled inwardly at the spiky-haired boy's naïveté.

_"Too easy,"_ the blonde thought.

"I play the piano. I'm the best in the school. I beat the senior who had played it for three years for the only spot in concert band last year," the sophomore stated with pride.

"That wasn't very nice," Sora commented carelessly. Looking sallow and like he had been punched in the stomach, the blonde attempted to regain control and looked met the cerulean irises with fury in his own eyes.

"Why would you say _that_? I was better than him," Seifer hissed through his teeth trying to maintain control over his emotions and whisper at the same time. No one had ever said the blonde didn't deserve the spot last year.

"It was his last year. That was mean that you wouldn't at least share the spot with him his senior year," Sora threw out thoughtlessly, flipping to the section assigned to the two teens. The innocent brunette didn't notice that his partner was seething and ready to explode. Seifer quickly calmed down and looked at Sora, who was perusing the section.

_"It doesn't matter,"_ the blonde thought. _"This boy will be useful in the end, let him think what he wants for now."_

The two boys worked on the project together for the rest of the period, while Seifer planned out his course of action.

x x x

"Have a good weekend, Sister!" Sora yelled at last minute as he walked out of the door, slamming into Riku.

"Sora, it's common practice to walk facing forward," the silver-haired teen teased.

"Riku! I made a new friend!" Sora practically screamed.

Riku chuckled at this comment. The older boy knew that his best friend would have no trouble making new friends. The only thing that worried the silver-haired teen was the thought that Sora would have no time to spend with his childhood friend, now that he was making new ones.

"OH! But don't worry, Riku! I'll always have time for you!" Sora reassured. Riku released a breath he didn't know he was holding.

_"How did he know?"_ Riku thought as he studied the brunette walking beside him.

The two teens continued to walk down the bustling hall in silence until they reached the doors to the men's locker-room.

"Have fun in gym, Sora," Riku told his best friend as the bell rang.

"We're playing blitzball today! But Miss Wolster will find some way to ruin it. And it won't be as fun as when we play together," Sora commented with a sad tone.

"Don't worry, we'll play this weekend," Riku said, instantly cheering his spiky-haired friend. The silver-haired teen waved good bye as he saw his best friend bounce into the locker-room.

_"I wish I was in there with him,"_ Riku suddenly thought. Pushing the lewd thought out of his head immediately, Riku continued, _"No, Sora needs a friend, not a boyfriend."_ Riku continued to contemplate. _"He needs to get acclimated to high school first. And even then, he's not gay."_ Riku sighed when he noticed he had thought this, but it was true. Sora had never had a girlfriend, but he had never shown any interest towards boys either.

"Oh well. C'est la vie," Riku sighed under his breath as he entered his math class late.

x x x

"Okay, great game today, people. Be prepared for some weightlifting on Monday!" Auron yelled as he dismissed the gym class.

Sora smiled and waved goodbye to Auron and when he turned he forced a smile at the female gym teacher.

"Have a good weekend Mrs. Wolster," the frightened teen said in a shaky voice. The teacher glared and Sora thought he could hear a growl come from the woman.

"That's _MISS_ Wolster to you," she snarled though Sora could tell that he shouldn't reply.

After changing, Sora skipped out the doors of the locker-room and right into his friend.

"You could get hurt if you don't watch where you're going," the blonde said, chuckling inwardly at Sora's ignorance.

"Oh, hiya, Seifer!" The cocoa-haired boy greeted cheerfully. "Sorry about that, I didn't see you there."

Seifer scowled, though Sora didn't notice because the freshman was too busy looking for his best friend. Seifer saw his chance and took it.

"Hey, Sora, do you wanna work on that project tomorrow night?" The blonde questioned, grinning inwardly.

"Sure. We can work at my house if you want to. Riku will be there, but he won't mind," the innocent boy replied still distracted. "Hey speaking of Riku, have you seen him anywhere?"

"I thought I saw him walking the other way with some girls," Seifer stated smoothly, taking advantage of the conversation as much as possible.

"Oh, he was probably with Kairi and Selphie then," Sora reassured himself, instantly perking up. "Ok, well, I need to get to class, you can come over around six and we can finish the project. I'll email my address to you later tonight."

Sora bounced away down the hall, not noticing the devilish grin on Seifer's face.

"This is going to be fun," Seifer said to himself smiling all the way to his next class.

x x x

"RIKU!"

The flowing-haired boy looked up from his lunch with urgency to see two crystalline eyes giving him the best glare they could muster.

"Hey, Sora. Is something wrong?" The teen inquired, but secretly knew the reason he was about to be scolded.

"You weren't waiting outside my gym class for me today!" Sora responded, sounding a bit hurt.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I had to stay after my math class for a couple of minutes and Kairi and Selphie dragged me away and made me walk them to their classes," Riku immediately replied, almost sounding as if he were begging.

"Okay, I forgive you. I talked with Seifer anyways," Sora said carelessly, sitting down to enjoy is favorite time of the day.

"How do you know Seifer?" Riku questioned, stopping everything he was doing.

"We're partners for a project we have in our World History class. He's coming over tomorrow night to work on it with me. You can help if you really want to," Sora informed Riku, who was doing his best to cover up his concern for his best friend.

"Sora, I already took that class once, there's no way I'm gonna take it again," Riku replied, attempting to calm himself. Kairi noticed her friend was stressed about something but decided not to ask until she could get Riku alone. It would not be good for Sora if his best friend cracked down in front of him.

The group finished their lunches and Kairi saw Riku calm down a tad more, but the cyan-eyed girl was not convinced.

"Hey, Riku, can we talk?" The Kairi started.

"Kairi, you saw how mad Sora was when I wasn't there to walk him to class today," Riku quickly replied, glad that he thought of the excuse and worried about his best friend waiting for him.

"It's okay, Selphie will walk with him," Kairi told the silver-haired boy, while silently making a face at her cheerful friend. "Won't you, Selphie?"

Selphie didn't need to be asked twice. She had a sixth sense for when Kairi needed her help and it was going off in full force.

"Yep! Hey, Sora, wait up!" The peppy teen yelled, skipping over to the confused boy. Sora shot a pleading look at his best friend, but he was pulled out of the cafeteria by Selphie before he could reply.

_"Note to self: buy Selphie some ice cream,"_ Kairi thought as she watched the scene come to a close.

"What's wrong with you and Sora?" Kairi interrogated, not one to waste time.

"What are you talking about?"

Riku was lying. He knew exactly what she was talking about. What was worse was that the aquamarine-eyed teen knew that Kairi was one of the few people he knew that could call any bluff, which is the main reason why he never played poker with the auburn-haired girl.

Kairi saw it. Kairi saw the one thing that always gave Riku away when he lied. She never figured out how it happened, but his eyes always flashed a bright green whenever her friend wasn't telling the truth. She had noticed it the first time Riku ever lied to her about his father. Of course, Kairi had never questioned Riku on the subject, but it had just been an innocent question at the time.

"Riku…" Kairi said calmly, concern in her eyes.

"I know…"

"Then what's wrong? You knew Sora was going to make new friends when he came here, so why did you make that face when he said he was having a friend over Saturday night?"  
Riku had to admit that Kairi was good. She had been the only one at the table to even notice the face, let alone to figure out why the sophomore made it.

"I'm concerned for Sora. "

There was no flash. Kairi smiled inwardly as she noticed that her silver-haired friend was sincerely concerned for Sora's wellbeing. The violet-eyed girl gave her long time friend a look, and decided that that was all she needed to know at the time. As long as her friends were still looking out for each other, Kairi had no reason to meddle. Many people pegged her as a person who loved to get into other people's business, but that was just what Selphie loved to do, and Kairi was only guilty by association. The cute redhead never pushed things when she knew that wouldn't help. The girl was as patient as a rock, never expecting anything, and only moving when acted upon.

"Okay Riku, that's all I needed to know. You know that if you ever need to talk about anything you can come to me right?" Kairi mentioned as she started to walk away.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks, Kairi." The words seemed distant coming from the slender mouth, but Kairi knew that her friend meant every single one of them. Riku looked off in the distance and suddenly felt the unexpected embrace of the girl's small arms. Kairi smiled after releasing the silver-haired teen, and skipped away to class, leaving an extremely confused Riku.

X X X

sorry i haven't posted in a while. things got really hectic at college, and now they've finally died down. only a couple more days left and then i'll have more time to post as much as i want!! huzzahs are in order! huzzah! i'm almost positive i'll post at least once more this weekend. this chapter was really short but expect the next ones to be much longer...sorry i just need to get some stuff in. OH and notice the slight movement in the plot! REVIEW!! aloha oe!


	4. Let's Be Spontaneously Rational Here

Chapter Four:

Let's Be Spontaneously Rational Here

Sora adored Miss Lulu's French class.

He adored how his teacher dressed in flowing black dresses with multiple belts criss-crossing her slender waist. Her coal-black hair fell down in a ponytail made of a plethora of braids of different sizes and lengths. Her stiletto shoes could have pierced a man's temple.

What the sky-blue eyes adored most, however, were her dark crimson eyes that looked like moist blood. The moist eyes that foiled the teacher's dry wit. Her sarcasm reminded the spiky-haired boy of Riku; humor that just pokes fun and is never meant to hurt.

It was only the third day and the ruby-eyed teacher had her students speaking simple phrases. She smirked as her students repeated a phrase she had dictated a moment earlier.

The small boy sat in his seat in the front of the class and watched his teacher's mouth form out all of the words and syllables. When Miss Lulu asked the class to repeat the phrase, the sapphire-eyed student slowly mimicked what his teacher had just done, forming the same shapes with his own mouth in perfect imitation. Never one to miss a beat, Lulu watched the boy and was intrigued. She had never had any student pick up on the language with such ease. The dark-haired woman decided to keep an eye on the boy's progress.

"Very good class, now here's a worksheet for you to finish before the end of the period," Lulu stated, handing out the papers and noticing the frightened looks that appeared across the class. "Don't worry, you can use your books if you need them, and I'm always here if you need help."

The students began to work fervently on the worksheet, while Sora just looked at it, studying every question before starting. When starting to write the first answer, the prodigy felt a hard, fretful tap on his left shoulder.

"Hey, can you help me with this? I'm not getting any of it," a girl with short, black hair and beagle-brown eyes asked innocently. She looked honestly confused and Sora could almost never refuse to help others when they need it. Furthermore, her hair was shaped around her face in a way that made her eyes become even bigger when upset.

"Sure, what don't you get?" Sora whispered.

The two teens worked through the questions together and when the bell finally rang, they handed in the paper with confidence.

While packing up their things, the black-haired girl questioned, "How are you so good at this? You knew almost all of the answers."

"My piano teacher teaches me some Italian and French, so I know what the lyrics on the music say. I've only learned a little bit from her in the past couple of years, but it helps immensely."

_"So this is why the boy picked up on the language so quickly,"_ Lulu thought. _"The boy gets more interesting by the minute."_

"SO YOU PLAY PIANO?" Sora's new friend yelled more than asked.

"Yeah, I've been playing since I was five-years-old," Sora replied trying not to laugh at the girl's resemblance to Kairi and Selphie.

"That's so cool! You should try out for concert band next semester!"

"Oh, well, the thing is that I don't play for anyone other than my piano teacher."

"That's silly, I'm sure you're an awesome musician and don't you want to share that gift with anyone?"

Sora had heard this from Fran and Riku multiple times, but never from someone who he had just met. Sora remained silent while the two teens continued to weave through the crowded hallways.

"I want to play for someone, but it has to be perfect; if it's not, they won't like me anymore."

The brown-eyes read him like a book. Sora was just easy to read sometimes, even by complete strangers.

"Is this person your best friend, who would love you no matter what?" She asked as they came to a halt by Sora's locker. Even though her eyes were a soft brown, the small boy could feel them piercing his mind and soul while he scrambled through his locker.

"Yeah, Riku would always be my best friend," Sora replied quietly, talking more to himself than his new companion.

"Than what's there to worry about? Riku's an awesome guy! I'm sure he'd love to hear you play," the girl said sporting a huge grin that seemed to fill up most of her face.

The sapphire eyes snapped out of the thought they had waded into and came crashing back to reality, making sure to voice their return for everyone to hear, "You know Riku? Are you a sophomore also?" The black-haired girl Sora directed his questions at was slightly stunned by the sudden screaming coming from the pianist's mouth.

"Oh! I guess I never introduced myself! I'm Yuffie! I'm a sophster!" The peppy girl shot out her hand as if the two had met that second. Sora happily shook it, just as the bell rang. Yuffie went blanch and screamed as she began running down the hallway, pushing people out of her way, "I have to get to class! I'm just going to assume you're Sora."

"Yeah, I am, but how did…"

"The term 'best friends' is a two-way street, Sora. Riku talks about you all the time in math class, and don't be afraid to play for him. Have a great day, Sora!" Yuffie almost knocked over a couple of people in the process of saying this, and hurried around the corner and out of sight. The famous grin flew onto the boy's face and Sora was happy that Riku had been correct about how well the chocolate-haired teen would make friends. Then again, Riku was never wrong in Sora's crystalline eyes.

"Yuffie seemed to be in a hurry."

Sora yelped at the voice that came from behind him and as the person's breath ghosted across the back of his neck. Sora collected himself from the midday scare and immediately thought he could handle the situation.

Boy was he wrong.

"Riku, you know I despise being scared!" Sora yelled in the otherwise quiet hallway, all the while wheeling around and preparing his best glare.

The ferocity in the crystalline eyes bounced right off of Riku as usual, as if there was a magical force-field that protected the boy's heart from feeling the sting of the younger boy's eyes.

The silver-haired teen chuckled, and explained, "That's why it's so much fun, Sora! Because you look _so_ adorable when you're scared."

"Thanks, Riku. That really helps my self-esteem," Sora threw out dryly.

"Don't worry; I'll make sure that I'm the only person to ever scare you, okay?"

"What a great promise, Ri…" Sora started, but stopped as he noticed the sincerity in his best friend's eyes and smiled in return. "Okay, I'll take you up on that. Now let's get some lunch, I'm starving!"

"Your mind is never far from food, is it?" The sea green-eyed boy questioned jokingly.

"Nope, food is one of my favorite things in the world!" Sora replied cheerfully. "Along with you, of course."

The last comment had barely escaped the younger boy's perfect mouth in time to stop Riku from whatever comment he was about to make and force a blush onto his otherwise pale face. After the sophomore was certain that his face no longer contained a violent shade of crimson, he restarted the conversation, "Well, you would never guess that. You look like you weigh about ninety pounds."

"_**I'm up to one hundred and ten pounds, thank you!**__"_ Sora hissed with venom slathered on every word. The mocha-haired teen enjoyed many things in life, but the one subject he always loathed discussing was the subject of his weight. This was because Sora was drastically underweight all of his life, despite the fact that he ate twice as much as anyone he knew. Riku knew this fact yet had commented on his weight despite it. _"Stupid, stupid, stupid, Riku. The one subject you know Sora hates talking about and you bring it up and make fun of it anyways. He just said that you were one of his favorite things and you couldn't help taking a shot when you could. I strongly doubt that there is anyone as dumb as you,"_ Riku thought this and left the conversation hanging in the air for a couple of seconds before realizing that his friend had stayed by his side. Changing the subject of conversations had never been one of the silver-haired teen's fortes, but he decided to give it a shot. _"God, I'm an asshole."_

"The…" was all Riku got to say before being cut off.

"I forgive you, and I don't think you're a jerk, Riku," Sora butted in with a voice so soft Riku imagined it snapping if he said something else.

_More tame than I had worded it but close enough._ Riku's inner monologue continued just as they entered the cafeteria. _How did he know?_

"You know it's an issue with me, but you want me to be happy about the way I am. Don't think you're a jerk for trying to help me."

Riku stopped at the table and stared at his best friend.

_"He just rationalized me making fun of him. I don't deserve him as a friend," _Riku thought continuing to stand at the edge of the table.

"Don't worry, Riku, I said I forgive you. Now sit down and eat, I've got a seat here for you," Sora affirmed, waking Riku from his gloomy thoughts. Riku stared into the sky blue eyes of his friend and smiled. Kairi and Selphie skipped up to the table with their trays in hand and smiled at each other, just as the boys were doing.

The four teens were soon joined by Wakka and Tidus and the lunch table abounded with laughter and youthful energy. The energy they created would have knocked a ninety year old woman off her feet if she came within a ten foot radius of the group.

"So, Sora, I know you like food, but eating only sweets for lunch is horrible for you. Do you know how many calories are in all of that junk?" Riku questioned jokingly.

Sora had heard this before and was always ready with the same response, although he had never utilized his comeback on Riku before.

_It'll be a nice little payback for what he said earlier,_ Sora again rationalized but this time in his head.

"Well, Riku, the human brain uses more calories than any other part of the body, so naturally I need tons of calories to keep my amazing brain running. My brain uses most of the calories I take in, which explains why I'm so skinny and why you're so big and have to watch what you eat," Sora countered, matter-of-factly. The freshman's blue eyes gleamed with triumph and a treasure hunter would 

have mistaken them for two of the most perfect sapphires in the world at that moment. Everyone else was simply awe-struck at the small boy's comment. Sora rarely gave comebacks to Riku's teases, and none of them were as splendid as the one previously stated. Tidus and Wakka were the first to kill the rather large silence that had been brought about by a rather tiny boy. Their laughter brought Kairi and Selphie back to the present, as they had been replaying Sora's explanation in their heads over and over again. Riku stared at his cocoa-haired friend and finally closed his gaping mouth and smiled, admitting defeat. He was happy to see that Sora was getting better at defending himself, even at the cost of Riku's pride.

Sora was not a mean-hearted person, however, and while the table was laughing he leaned over and whispered in Riku's ear, "I'm sorry. I owe you something special."

Riku was again stunned by his best friend's innocent heart. The aquamarine eyes glazed over, thinking of the possibilities of the words "something special." Of course, the possibilities were innumerable, but Riku immediately banished the lewd thoughts from his mind, remembering his friend's innocent heart.

Amidst the roaring laughter and conversation to follow, the teens somehow heard the bell ring, and they all dispersed towards their various classes. Sora and Riku walked to their classes talking about the upcoming weekend that was only three periods away. It was out of sheer luck that Sora's math class was directly across the hall from Riku's English class. They agreed to meet in the hallway when their classes were over and Riku watched the cinnamon-haired boy wave goodbye and bounce into the classroom.

x x x

Sora detested math as much as he could detest anything. He didn't like that there was only one correct answer and a stupid mistake could subtract five points from your grade. Fortunately, Cid detested math just as much as Sora and taught it accordingly.

"Why couldn't Pinocchio's nose be longer than eleven inches?" Cid asked his class, the match in his mouth bobbing up and down with every syllable that came out.

"Why?" Sora almost yelled, as if he were the only person being asked the question. The cocoa-haired boy wasn't half-wrong, though, because he was definitely the only person who listened and laughed at his teacher's corny jokes.

"Because then it'd be a foot!" Cid exclaimed as he and Sora roared with laughter. After calming down and noticing the 'I'm too cool for these jokes' look on the faces of the rest of the class, Cid commented, "Well, I'm glad someone likes my jokes."

Cid continued on, actually teaching the students algebra instead of telling them war-stories or more jokes. Sora was caught off-guard when he noticed he was actually paying attention, but he was even more surprised when found out that he understood what his teacher was discussing.

Sora walked out of the class happier than before and ran up and gave his best friend an unexpected hug.

"What did I do to deserve that? Tell me and I'll do it more often," Riku questioned after Sora had released him from the embrace. The aquamarine-eyed teen hoped his best friend didn't notice how desperate his comment sounded.

"I like math now! It's great!" Sora blurted out while the two friends ambled down the hallway.

"WHAT?!" Riku said with obvious astonishment. Sora had _always_ hated math and Riku had been the one to hear about it. Riku continued to question his friend in rising bewilderment. Unfortunately for Riku and his ever-increasing intrigue, the two boys came to Sora's biology lab and said their goodbyes. Riku smiled as his cinnamon-haired friend skipped into the lab without a care in the world.

x x x

Because Destati High School was a private Catholic high school, though the administration constantly reminded students and parents alike it was a 'college preparatory school,' the students were bound by many rules, some very stupid, and some just insane. There was a rule that required all students to wear pants that were the color of the sand found on the beach only five minutes away and polo shirts that came in only three different colors, green like the grass, blue like the deep sea, and white like the clouds that rolled in silently over both. There was the rule that required each student to wear said sandy pants and polo shirts every day of the school year. Of course, there were rules that prohibited students from wearing sandals at all and shoes without socks despite the fact that the school was on an island. Sora thought that some of these rules were silly, like the fact that girls could wear school approved skirts whenever they wanted but guys had to wear the pants all year round. _"The pants aren't bad_,_"_ Sora thought. "_They just need to be jazzed up a little bit_._"_ There was one final rule which Sora had been slightly against at the very beginning but changed his mind after seeing it in action. The rule was that every student in every grade was required to take religion. Religion was never one of Sora's favorite subjects to discuss, especially because even though he was a Cradle-Catholic, his family rarely went to church. Sora had always thought that organized religion was silly, just like the rules the school enforced. To the small boy, organizing religion was like watching a movie from the end to beginning; it just didn't make sense that way. Furthermore, the bright teen thought that the traditions that the masses adhered to so desperately got in the way of what religion was all about in the first place. Despite his feelings about the structure of current religions, Sora enjoyed his religion class. And even though it was the last period of the day on a Friday, when everyone else had already declared the weekend to have started, Sora still listened attentively to his religion teacher. The class had just begun its in-depth dissection of the book of Genesis and the cocoa-haired boy loved the class already. Sora's bald teacher held exactly the same view on religion and its traditions, and the blue-eyed teen loved that. The teacher often stood in front of his 

class, plucked at his long beard and told them of his life in the Greek Orthodox Church. After seeing Yen Sid's devotion to people rather than to outdated traditions, Sora was very tempted to become a priest.

An impractical thought, but fun to imagine.

"_Riku wouldn't like it,"_ Sora thought, while Yen Sid discussed the creation story and the symbolism it held. _"He wouldn't like me being away all the time and not having fun with him."_

"And it is no coincidence that Eve was born from Adam and both sinned, and then later Jesus was born from Mary and both were sinless," Yen Sid lectured, looking as if here were talking more to himself than addressing the freshman class. Sora smiled as he looked at his teacher who was too deep in thought to notice the student passing notes. As if Yen Sid had read the chocolate-haired boy's thoughts, he immediately questioned, "And what is this called, class?"

Sora's hand shot up in the air, while the rest of the class looked confused that the teacher had actually acknowledged their existence.

"Go ahead, Sora," Yen Sid said, smiling at the only student who paid attention.

"It's called Typology," the teen stated, his crystalline eyes sparkling with pride.

"Correct," the teacher replied. Yen Sid continued on with his lecture, and Sora listened attentively. Occasionally, the blue eyes would glaze over and the teen's overactive imagination took control. Riku friendship was the only rival to Sora's imagination. The entire week the silver-haired boy was at band camp Sora went to the Secret Spot and imagined things for hours. He brought along a pencil, notebook, and sketchbook whenever he went to play, just in case the blue-eyed teen thought of something amazing. This way he could write or draw it down to remember it for later days.

Sora had a knack for picking out an adventure and sticking with it to the end. He was always trying to rescue someone from some unknown danger because despite the size of his imagination, the boy 

could never figure out who was behind all of the evil in his imaginary world. However, that didn't bother him much, as it added an element of mystery to the daydream. He usually fought against little black creatures that came in all various shapes and sizes. The sketchbook was full of them and Sora's mind feared that one day there would be an overflow and march right out of his sketchbook and into the real world. At least Sora would have his adventure. In any case, Sora always rescued his best friend from this unknown evil. The villain was only seen by Sora a select few times, and even then he wore a black trench coat and a hood covered his face. During the daydreams, Riku would be captured by the villain's henchmen and Sora was forced to save him. Nothing pleased Sora more than saving his best friend, because he felt it was payment for all of the things Riku had done for the chocolate-haired teen. Sora picked up right where he had left off during his Biology lecture: standing on a platform that had a beautiful stained glass princess on it, preparing to fight another cohort of the man in the black coat. Sora was fighting with his favorite weapon that he had thought up all by himself. For fear that he would be made fun of for the weapon's goofy design, Sora had never told anyone about this sword, but the chocolate haired boy loved it nonetheless. In Sora's mind's eye, the one right in the middle of his forehead that sees without actually containing an iris, pupil, lens, or all of that other stuff that eyes have, was a sword that looked oddly like a key. When Sora had thought of the appropriately named 'keyblade' some time ago, the teen thought it would be neat if it could change shape according to the 'keychain' that was attached to it. Sora had drawn dozens of keyblades with various keychains attached in his sketchbook. _"If those black creatures ever do escape from the confines of that book, then at least I'll know that I can pull out the keyblades also and destroy them,"_ Sora thought, and smiled at this realization. He thought through all of the keyblades available to bring to battle and finally decided to go with his two favorite ones: Oblivion and Oathkeeper. Oblivion was covered in black and had bat wings as a guard and a chain up the center of the blade. A black crown, similar to the one around the boy's neck, dangled from a black chain at the pommel of the blade. Oathkeeper was the exact opposite of Oblivion. The keyblade was mostly white but had other pastel colors in it and some silver and gold. The guard consisted of two angel wings which sprouted from two blades that bent and curved to make a heart 

at the tip of the sword. The teen's crystalline eyes flashed as he shot across the brightly colored stained glass and vanquished all of the black creatures that his enemy summoned.

"I have to think of a name for those things," Sora said under his breath. Riku was nowhere to be seen in his imagination, but that didn't worry the spiky-haired boy. Just as the final confrontation with his enemy began, the bell gave out a distinct ring and Sora flew from his laughing nemesis and back to the real world of homework and classes and sand colored pants. After packing up his books and saying goodbye to his teacher, Sora continued to the spot where he had agreed to meet Riku. The innocent boy stood, leaning slightly against the lockers and watched the students fly by, desperate for home, as he waited for his best friend.

"Excuse me; can I get to my locker?" Sora was pulled from the same trance the students had set on him just two days ago to come face to face with the biggest set of brown eyes he had ever seen. The girl standing in front of him had a short school mandated plaid skirt on and the required top that was overly risqué. She transferred books to and from her locker with relative ease, despite their apparent weight, after Sora had shuffled a few inches away from it. The black-haired teen was startled when she turned around to see the sapphire-eyes still there.

"Are you lost?" She asked sincerely.

"No, I'm just waiting here for a friend," the patented smile crept across Sora's face as he replied cheerfully.

"Oh, well, I'm Tifa. What's your name?" Tifa inquired, making small talk.

The second pair of beagle-brown eyes Sora had seen that day felt as soft and kind as Riku's, and Sora was obligated to respond to the question, "I'm Sora, and it's a pleasure to meet you, Tifa." The cocoa-haired boy thrust his hand out as a gesture of their newfound friendship and Tifa could do nothing but smile and accept it.

The two teens made small talk until a figure made his way down the hallway behind Sora, taking each new step with more caution than the previous one. When the silver-haired boy could have picked his best friend's pockets, Tifa continued on pleasantly.

Tifa took her leave and heard a yelp as she walked with her back to the two friends. The young woman turned and noticed that there was no real hurt in Sora's crystalline eyes and felt relieved.

"Well, I should probably be going. I'll see ya around, Sora," Tifa yelled said as she started down the hallway again. The black-haired girl would have finished down the hallway if she hadn't received and unexpected hug from Sora after two steps.

"Thanks for talking to me today! I'm glad I met you!" Was all that came out of Sora's mouth before he raced back to Riku's side and started hopping down the hallway.

"Who was that? She looked familiar," Riku immediately questioned leaving Sora disappointed that the silver-haired teen hadn't greeted his best friend first. The aquamarine eyes saw the mistake.

"Hey, Sora."

Sora perked up and smiled at his best friend, before starting his explanation, "Her name is Tifa. I was standing in front of her locker while waiting for you and we started talking. I'm not sure what grade she's in, though."

Riku shrugged and the pair turned a corner and headed for the exit. Kairi and Selphie were going shopping all afternoon and Wakka and Tidus went to practice blitzball at the beach, which left the two boys alone for the afternoon. Riku loved it when his friends were busy. Yes, he would have the entire weekend to be with Sora, but any extra time the aquamarine-eyed boy could get alone with his companion was always welcome. Finally arriving at his house, Sora put his bag down and went to the kitchen. Riku flopped down on the couch, but knew what was coming when Sora entered the living room holding a can of soda. Without saying a word, the silver-haired teen walked over to his younger friend, grabbed the 

soda, and proceeded out the back door. Riku heard the door lock with a click and the aquamarine-eyed teen headed over to the swing-set as he had done the previous day.

Sora sat down at the bench and lifted the cover, revealing his adored instrument. Before the pianist even thought about opening his music, the slender fingers found the _A_ key just below middle _C_. Pushing it released a tone that always gave the spiky-haired boy goose-bumps. The tone was whole and perfect to the young prodigy. After sitting and listening to the tone for a couple of seconds, Sora reached for the music he was going to play for Riku in five days. The blue-eyes were full of terror at the thought but the comments Yuffie and Fran made floated into the boy's head. Sora released a deep breath when he told himself that Riku would always be his friend. After that reassuring thought, Sora began to play; starting out so soft it was barely audible. The pianist was looking at the page but wasn't reading the notes. Sora had long since memorized the piece and had the music up just for reference. The crystalline eyes stared past the sheets filled with moving notes. The blue orbs looked far into the distance at something that he always tried to see when playing the piano. He tried to see the perfect scene that described each specific piece he performed. Sora watched different scenes for different pieces, but the sapphire eyes still couldn't make out this piece's scene clearly. The scene was somewhat clearer than his previous practice but there was still a thick haze with two blobs moving towards each other and then shifting across the landscape. Sora almost wanted to rub his forehead and see if that would clear away the gunk covering up his mind's eye, but he had to finish the song first. Something was impeding his imagination, and it had been that way since he first received the music. Letting out a sigh, Sora's fingers ended the piece in sorrow sending an invisible cloud of despair throughout the house. The final chords themselves were cheerful, but because the prodigy felt depressed the tones produced contained the misery he felt. The teen was becoming nervous. After playing a piece once or twice he could always see the scene unfold that he believed fit it best.

"It's okay," Sora reassured himself. "I'll see it before I play for Riku." The boy smiled and the despair dissipated from the room. Sora ran out the back door to see his silver-haired friend flying towards 

him. Riku landed on his feet, but tried not to run into his best friend who had appeared in his landing path. The two stumbled toward the house and Riku caught himself from falling by grabbing the door. Sora had closed his eyes but when he revealed the two azure irises, they were only inches away from his best friend's face. Riku had caught himself at the last second by thrusting both of his arms against the door. This left Sora trapped and Riku in full control.

"_Kiss him! Do it now!_" Was the first thought that entered the flowing-haired boy's mind. Sora noticed his best friend was thinking about something but the innocent mind couldn't imagine what it was. The sapphire eyes pierced into the deep ocean of Riku's own eyes, but the cocoa-haired boy still couldn't imagine what Riku was thinking.

"_Don't do it! He's not like that! He likes Kairi_," Riku's inner debate continued.

Sora had had enough of this game.

"Whatcha thinkin' about, Riku?" The spiky-haired boy asked innocently.

"_Just whether or not to kiss you_," Riku thought.

"Oh, nothin' important," Riku replied.

"Oh," was all that came out of Sora's cute little mouth. Riku couldn't decide if the boy was depressed by what was previously stated or if it was just something to kill the silence that had been slathered on so thickly and suddenly. Riku didn't mind silence but he knew Sora had to destroy it every time it made an appearance. Something about being a musician and words failing and whatnot. Riku never liked that policy, but then again he wasn't as hyper, perky, musically talented, or anything as much as Sora. Riku chuckled at this thought but mid-laugh he found himself without the support of the door. After a confusing tumble into the brightly colored kitchen, Riku gathered himself and looked around the room from his spot on the tiled floor. Riku had seen the sunflower yellow kitchen walls many times but 

this was his first time looking at them while lying down. It took the silver-haired teen a few seconds to recognize what had happened.

"Why did you open the door when I was leaning on it?" Riku questioned, dusting off his clothes from the fall.

"I got hungry and was bored with just standing there. Are you okay?"

"_I'll be fine if you kiss my sore face._"

"Yeah, I'm fine, but you could have warned me."

"Sorry. I guess I didn't think of it."

Sora smiled and produced jelly and peanut butter to make what Riku knew was the blue-eyed boy's favorite after-school snack. Riku came over and sat on the countertop next to where his friend was working.

"Hey! You're taking up all of the countertop!"

"Are you saying my butt is big?"

"No, just in the way." And with strength the aquamarine-eyed teen was not aware his friend possessed, Sora pushed Riku farther down the countertop to make more room to build his sandwich. After completing the PB&J, Sora cut it in half, poured two glasses of chocolate milk and handed a glass and half of the sandwich to his friend before joining him on the countertop.

"How's the song coming along?" Riku inquired between chews. Sora was silent for a minute and then stared at the pale teen with a look that Riku had not seen in a long time. Riku had decided that the look didn't convey just one of Sora's emotions, but all of them at once. Sora's face ended up looking more confused than anything, and that was always how the cocoa-haired boy felt when he made this face. Riku noticed something was wrong, and Sora didn't know how to fix it.

"What's wrong with it?" Riku decided it was his turn to kill the silence Sora hated so much.

"I can't tell you, you'll laugh at me," Sora practically whispered.

"Sora, I'll never make fun of you for doing something you love."

"Don't worry, I'll see it," was the reply Riku received as the pianist put his glass in the sink and walked into the living room. The aquamarine-eyes flashed confusion which was followed a moment later by acceptance. Riku chuckled at the mysterious words left hanging in the air by his best friend, before he followed suit and headed into the living room.

"It's about time you got in here," Sora teased. "These video games won't play themselves, Riku." The aqua-eyed boy smirked as he picked up the controller.

After about an hour of heated battle the score was tied and the clock was counting down the last ten seconds.

"_One clear shot, that's all I need,_" Riku thought. Riku saw his chance to win the game. Aimed. And missed. Sora's character whipped around and received the winning kill.

"You did that on purpose!" Sora yelled.

"No, I honestly missed you." The flash in Riku's ocean-like eyes went unnoticed by his best friend. Sora accepted the win and proceeded to do his victory dance that Riku often saw.

The Friday night ritual continued on as it always did: Lily arrived home and cooked a huge dinner, after which the three retired to the living room where they ate popcorn and watched movies for the rest of the night. Each person present picked one movie to watch and Lily's was always watched first. This was usually because she picked a chick flick.

Sora's film usually went second and could be almost any genre. Sometimes the cocoa-haired boy was in the mood for gory movies like _Kill Bill_; other times he enjoyed a classic Disney movie like 

_Aladdin_. It was always a gamble as to what the sapphire-eyes would want to view. Riku almost always chose a horror film, usually something with vampires. The silver-haired boy never minded scary movies much, but what he loved was how much they scared Sora. The interesting part of all of this, or so Riku thought, was that Sora was only terrified of vampires and insects. Riku couldn't stand insects either, so he usually chose a vampire movie. The sophomore had never questioned his best friend about his fears, but the teen knew it was a touchy subject.

x x x

_You've Got Mail_ ended finished and Sora hopped off to get his movie.

"Three bucks says it's Disney," Lily began their usual betting game while her son was searching for his movie in his room.

"Four bucks, and it'll be a non-Disney action slash romance movie," Riku replied, smirking from his position on the floor.

"Let's just make it an even five, ok?"

"Fine by me. I'm not gonna lose."

"We'll see who knows my son better."

"I've known him just as long as you have," Riku said with another patented smirk as the boy in question bounced into the room.

The first scene of the movie was artistically portrayed. It flawlessly shifted back and forth between two people getting ready to go out for the night. One was a beautiful girl and the other was a man dressed in all black. The two turned off their respective televisions at what appeared to be the same moment.

"Damn," Lily said under her breath.

"What Mom?" Her blue-eyed son questioned.

"Oh, nothing. I just think I just lost a five dollar bill somewhere today," Lily replied, covering her tracks.

"Maybe you shouldn't be so careless," Riku chimed in. Lily couldn't help but laugh at the comment.

The movie continued on and both Riku and Lily knew why the spiky-haired teen had picked the action packed film. It was for the one particular scene where the anti-hero, simply named "V," held up a baton on the rooftops of London and conducted the _1812 Overture_ for his "date" Evee. The blue eyes sparkled with increased brilliance as the small boy stood up in the middle of the room and recited the scene word for word. Riku sat and stared at his best friend as he began conducting the _Overture_. At the end of the dramatic explosion, Sora collapsed on the floor, panting and giggling. Sapphire sky met a turquoise ocean as the pair of eyes locked. Sora gave his patented grin and Riku returned it with a smile.

The movie ended dramatically and with slender arms again flying through the air, hitting the ictus regularly. The finale left the piano prodigy more exhausted than the previous conducting experience. Sora didn't even notice his flowing-haired friend stand up and replace the movie with _Dust 'til Dawn_.

Sora had never seen the movie before and Lily was constantly giving Riku looks asking why he chose this particular horror flick.

While Sora was wrapped up in the film, Riku turned his head ever-so-slightly and mouthed, "Keep the money," to Lily.

"What's this movie about, Riku?" Was the only thing that came out of the innocent, little mouth the entire first half of the movie.

"Two criminal brothers," was the reply Riku always gave.

The movie progressed and Sora felt an uneasy feeling deep in his gut.

"The title, _Dust 'til Dawn_, what does it have to do with these two brothers?" Sora asked, feeling an ever-growing sense of suspense.

"Just give it some time, okay?" Riku responded quietly. He knew Sora easily picked up on foreshadowing and the use of other directing elements in movies, and the aquamarine eyes dazzled as they saw the small body scoot closer and closer to his own body. Lily decided it was time for her to go to bed at that point and gave Riku a look which he interpreted as, 'I'll hold it against you when he doesn't sleep for the next month.' The teen shrugged the look off with a smirk. Lily had just fallen asleep when she heard her son scream with terror.

"_Oh, Riku, what have you done now?_" Crossed her mind before she fell asleep again.

"Sora, you'll wake your mom up if you don't quiet down!"

"YOU KNOW I HATE VAMPIRES, RIKU!"

"But it's okay because I'm here, right?"

"_Check…_" Riku's mind started.

"Not if they get you too…"

"_I guess there's no winning this chess game._"

"They're not going to get me, Sora."

"But vampires are supernaturally strong. Even you can't overpower one."

"Even if they do 'get' me, I'll make sure not one vampire touches a hair on your head."

"You won't be the same; you'll be driven by your lust for blood."

"Sora, I think we both know that our friendship is stronger than measly hunger pains."

"But…but…"

There was a silence that fell on the room as the vampires on the movie continued their massacre. Riku decided it was his duty to break the silence and did it as if he were throwing a brick through a window.

"Why don't you like vampires anyway? You can watch zombie movies and not get scared."

"Zombies aren't cognitive…" Sora had barely whispered it and Riku strained his ears to put together what his best friend had just said.

"You mean you don't like vampires because they can think?" Riku inquired further.

"It's not just that. They can think; they plan; they scheme; they know what they're doing and yet they continue to do it. The morals that bind all humans together are totally forgotten by these blood-thirsty nightwalkers. They're heartless murders, and yet they don't act on instinct alone like zombies do. They're sentient beings without emotion and don't care about the people they feed on. I don't like the idea of something without a heart being capable of thought, let alone having superhuman powers. It scares me." Sora replied and left his older friend stunned.

"They're just fictional characters, you know?" Riku tried carelessly. The teen immediately remembered his best friend's overactive imagination.

"That's the worst kind of character! If they were based on real people, I'd be fine, because real people die, but fictional characters can live forever if someone wants them to," Sora responded, on the verge of having a panic attack. All of this talk of vampires after the sun had set strained the small tan body more than he let on.

Riku's plans never backfired like this. His plans were foolproof; never failed; always got him what he wanted. This plan, however, had blown up right in his face and unexpectedly. That was the worst part about this: to Riku, this had all been a spontaneous event due to some unpredicted variable. The chemicals might react instantly when someone mixes them or the person might have to wait a couple of minutes to see a visible response. After they reacted, though, there was always a giant flame or a bright light and sometimes a loud popping sound as an added bonus, just in case the open flame wasn't enough. That was how Riku saw this situation: a spontaneous reaction that occurred because the turquoise-eyed teen wasn't aware of the powerful chemicals he was playing with. The explosion was spectacular for the ones whose faces weren't caught in the blast.

"I'm sorry. It was mean of me to make you watch this. I should have known."

Riku could barely get the words out. There was a strange popping noise in his ears and he didn't know where he had heard it before, or where it came from.

"You should have known, yes, but…" Sora trailed off in thought before finishing the sentence. The movie was still playing and the young pianist became interested in what one of the characters was doing. The old preacher had taken a shot gun and placed a steel bar across it, making an effective tool for undead fighting.

"You need to help me make crosses, Riku." Sora said it as if it were any other request. _Could you pick up that pencil I dropped?_ would have fit perfect in the tone the cinnamon-haired boy used.

"I'll forgive you if you help me make crosses," the blue-eyed boy added as a clincher. He would have forgiven Riku anyway, but Sora needed to ensure their safety for the night. Riku sighed in agreement and began looking for materials.

"_It's ironic that I'm making crosses for forgiveness,_" the teen thought as he tied the fire poker and shovel together with some string he found in the junk drawer.


	5. Retreat to the Darkness

Disclaimer: i don't own kingdom hearts, or any of their characters.

This is long overdue, kinda boring so beware.

Chapter Five:

Retreat to the Darkness

Always the first to wake up in the morning, Riku showed no exception this Saturday. The teen moved quietly and carefully from Sora's room, now decorated with crosses of every size, and out into the hallway. Riku personally would have rather used the fire poker to bash an invading vampire's head in, but that didn't matter now seeing as the sun was already rising. Downstairs in the kitchen, the silver-haired male grabbed some pots and pans and began making breakfast. What Riku cooked usually depended on what Lily had stocked in fridge. The aquamarine eyes spied a couple of potatoes, some blueberries, milk, eggs, and ham.

"Perfect," Riku said to himself. He found some waffle mix in the cupboard and started cooking. The only child was used to cooking for himself and with very few ingredients, so he easily adapted to cook for a larger group. After everything was prepared, the silver hair looked like water moving against gravity as he climbed the staircase. Riku woke Lily up first and worked his way to his best friend's room. It was a weekly ritual for the turquoise eyes to stop and look at every picture on the way from Lily's master bedroom to Sora's room. Well, it was more like a junkyard the way the cocoa-haired boy kept it.

Riku looked at all the photograph's hanging on the wall for several reasons; the biggest reason was that by looking at the pictures the teen gave Lily time to get ready and Sora more time to sleep. The first picture the aquamarine eyes examined was of a wedding. The bride was dressed in a simple white dress with her veil drawn back. Her eyes sparkled with sapphire brilliance, and spring rain on a quiet meadow would be harsh compared to the tenderness her smile held. Her hair bounced in soft brown curls and dusted her shoulders. The beautiful young 

woman was accompanied by her only bridesmaid, her new husband, and his best man. The bridesmaid was standing behind the bride and despite whose wedding it actually was, looked just as gorgeous in her hunter green dress. Her straight hair fell down to the small of her back in a braided silvery waterfall and her eyes matched her dress perfectly. She was holding the hand of her soon to be husband, whose long silvery hair was pulled back into a ponytail and whose teal eyes sparkled in the flash of the camera. The beautiful, young bride was contently holding her new husband's hands. The man's hands were strong but held the woman's hand tenderly, as if holding a precious Faberge egg. He was dashing in his tuxedo and there wasn't a blemish on his smooth face. The smile on his face was the original and the boy sleeping in the next room simply used a clone of it. His eyes were deep and as warm as his smile. They were an ordinary brown hue, but held love for many people. The man's hair was neatly groomed, looked natural, and matched his beagle eyes. This was the only picture on the wall that the man didn't sport his normal short spikes. The two pairs couldn't have looked happier even though the aquamarine eyes had moved to the other pictures. Riku stopped at one of his favorite photographs on the walls. It was a simple picture of a young man in camouflage. His short, brown hair was hidden from view by the hat he was wearing but his brown eyes held the same love that was seen in the wedding picture. The man's face was only a little older, with a few sharper edges and a little more muscular. The dog-tags that dangled around his neck lit up with a reflection of the flash and the man's smile was unmistakable. The photograph made Riku proud of Sora's father and his own mother for their services to their country what seemed like almost a lifetime ago. A shiver sprinted across the teen's muscular body as the thought of his mother came to mind. Pulling out his wallet, the long fingers shuffled through the pictures held within it to find the one 

his oceanic eyes longed to see. Finally reaching the last photograph, which was practically hidden in the back, he starred at the dark green eyes and the now short, silver hair.

"We should probably wake Sora up."

The crystalline eyes blatantly displayed shock as the silver hair whipped around like rushing water. Riku caught Lily's warm sky blue gaze and replied, "Yeah, he already sleeps enough."

The teen walked with Lily to the sleeping prodigy's room where Riku entered and the prodigy's mother proceeded to the kitchen. The sea-green eyes starred down at the dreaming chocolate-haired boy, and imagined the possibilities.

"_I could scare him when he wakes up, but that would be mean after last night,_" Riku thought as he watched his best friend sleep quietly.

"_I could kiss him,_" the pale teen continued to contemplate.

"_But he's not gay,_" Riku's conscious decided to butt in.

"_But he's asleep, he'll never know,_" Riku's sharp logic rebutted.

This inner debate continued until the teen's sharp ears heard something over the shouting in his head. The boy's ears quickly forced their way into the debate claiming that something important was being said outside of his brain. His hair moved like moonlit water for the second time in the past five minutes. The turquoise eyes noticed the chocolate-haired boy stirring in his sleep.

"Just do it, Riku. You know you want to," came from the dreaming boy.

Any passerby would have mistaken Riku for a marble statue do to his pallor and sheer stillness as he watched his best friend.

"_Had I been talking out loud?_" Riku thought in a panic. "_If I had been talking out loud, he doesn't care if I kiss him._" The sea-green eyes decided that it was best to trust his instincts in this situation and the teen started to lean over his best friend to place a long desired kiss on his perfect lips.

"Just eat it already, Riku! I don't like olives on my pizza anyway," Sora continued, with Riku hovering an inch over him.

The older boy fell to the ground and burst out laughing in hysteria. His fit of laughter woke the spiky-haired boy from his blissful pizza dream with confusion.

"What's so funny, Riku? Did I miss something?" The innocent boy questioned.

Panting from laughing, Riku answered, "I'll tell you later. Breakfast is ready."

The crystalline eyes immediately glittered at the thought of food.

"Why didn't you mention that earlier?" Sora asked as if he would die in the next couple of minutes if he didn't have nourishment.

The two boys hurried downstairs and sat at the table where Lily had begun eating without them. Riku grabbed the scrambled eggs as Sora scrambled for the blueberry waffles. It was a good breakfast for what had been used to make it. Home-fries made from potatoes, blueberry waffles, and scrambled eggs with ham included into the mix.

"This is excellent, Riku," Lily praised the young chef.

"Yeah, Riku, it's great," Sora spat out with his mouth full of home-fries. Riku smiled at the kind words he rarely received from anyone, and replied with sincerity, "Well, you let me stay here every weekend, the least I can do is cook for you guys."

It dawned on Riku at that moment, that this was what he wanted for the rest of his life. The silver-haired teen wished that Sora and Lily could be his new family and that the three of them could have breakfasts like this every day.

"So can I assume that those are makeshift crosses adorning our walls?" Lily queried after a moment or two of silence.

"Yeah, Riku helped me make them last night to ward off vampires," Lily's innocent son responded.

"Oh, really?" Lily didn't ask this as a valid question but more to rub it in Riku's face. The pale teen shrugged the look off as he had done the previous night.

"Did you like _Dusk 'til Dawn_ then, Sora?" Lily continued interrogating, attempting to prove her point to her son's best friend by any means necessary.

"It was okay until the vampires showed up," Sora explained, not noticing his mother's ulterior motive.

"Vampires? Did you turn off the movie after that?"

"Well, we watched until I got the idea to make crosses. After that we turned off the movie."

"Gotcha. Well, the crosses seemed to have worked last night." Riku gave Sora's mother a look that she read as "_You're resorting to this?_" Lily laughed at the expression and the aqua-eyed teen joined in the chuckle-fest, leaving a severely confused Sora.

"What's so funny?" The crystalline orbs showed more confusion than the question revealed.

"Oh, it's just a little inside joke between your mom and me," Riku pulled out of thin air.

"Inside jokes are rude; they're esoteric," Sora stated, his face changing from confusion to the best pouting face he could manage. The face he made didn't help his case, however, because Riku and Lily found it hilarious and laughed harder. After a few moments of laughing and gasping and a pouting Sora, Riku finally commented on what his best friend had previously said, "That's a pretty big word, Sora: Esoteric. Where did you learn a word like that?"

Refusing to make eye contact with either of the other two people present at the table, the sulking boy answered, "We learned it in English. It's one of our vocab. words this week."

Riku hoped that this mood wouldn't last so to help the healing process he threw some aloe on the wound, "Wanna help me take these crosses apart? I doubt we'll have to worry about any vampires in broad daylight."

"But what about when the sun goes down tonight?" Sora protested.

"How 'bout we leave a few up, okay?" Riku compromised, though after last night he was in no position to do so.

"Okay," the brown-haired boy agreed in a depressing tone.

The two boys put their plates in the kitchen sink and moved throughout the house dismantling the various crosses that were created only the night before. Riku chuckled when he found one cross made from the two wooden swords the boys had played with as children. After the majority of crosses were dismantled, Lily notified the two boys that she was heading to the grocery store and wanted to know what she should get for dinner. If Riku had said anything, it was drowned out by the blue-eyed boy screaming "Steak!" Luckily, Riku had suggested the same meal, but in a calmer, more controlled voice.

"Okay, I'll buy three steaks for tonight then," Lily agreed.

"OH! Wait! I invited a friend over to work on a project, so get one for him too," Sora added as his mother was moving towards the door.

"That's fine, four steaks and I'll get mashed potatoes with that," Lily said as she rushed out of the door before her son could add any more food to the menu.

Riku and Sora waved goodbye to the brown-haired woman as she drove away and after she was out of sight, the turquoise eyes flashed and met the azure orbs.

"Wanna go to the beach while she's gone?" Riku inquired.

"Sure. I've been wanting to beat you at blitzball lately," Sora answered.

The two boys got in their swim trunks and called Tidus and Wakka to inform them of the immanent game. Sora's spiky hair bounced while Riku's cascaded behind him like a silver brook as the two friends sauntered to the beach.

"Are those trunks new?" Riku inquired after a moment of silence.

"Yeah! Aren't they cool?" Sora exclaimed with excitement, more from the fact that Riku had noticed his new swim trunks and not at how cool they actually were.

Riku studied the shorts for a few seconds trying not to give away the fact that he was actually staring at his friend's golden legs. The shorts themselves were white with black flames rising up from the bottom of the cuffs.

"They're cool," the aquamarine-eyed teen said after a couple of minutes. The two teens arrived at the beach to find Wakka and Tidus passing a blitzball back and forth.

"It's about time, ya?" Wakka yelled to his friends as they approached the pair.

"Yeah, yeah," Riku brushed off the comment as easily as the blitzball that had been thrown at him. Sora was amazed that Riku caught the ball and spun it on his finger before tossing it back.

"So, how 'bout we go sophsters versus frosh?" Riku suggested after Wakka caught the ball.

"Sounds like a great way to welcome these two to high school, ya?" Wakka responded with a wicked grin.

Sora felt an uneasy feeling, especially because the cocoa-haired boy wasn't on his best friend's team.

"Don't worry, Sora," Tidus whispered to his blue-eyed friend. "We'll kick their asses!"

The patented smile flew onto Sora's face as the high-schoolers waded into the warm ocean water. The game started and Sora and Tidus were off. Sora had learned some new moves 

in gym the day before and Tidus was a god at blitzball. Sora passed the ball to Tidus and swam as fast as his legs and arms would take him before his blonde friend caught the ball. Tidus evaded two well-maneuvered rushes and threw the ball at his pointy-haired teammate. The blue orbs noticed the sphere hurtling towards him and jumped out of the water in enough time to kick the blue ball into the floating hoop. Wakka and Riku waded in the water, both stunned at the scene they had just witnessed. Timid Sora had never held the ball without immediately passing it to his teammate, let alone attempted a shot. Riku grinned as he saw his best friend splash around and jump out of the water like a dolphin at the success of the play. The game continued and the sophomore team noticed the intense competition their freshman friends were presenting. Every time Riku scored, Sora or Tidus was there to tie up the game or take the lead. For every well-planned steal, Wakka made, the two younger teens recaptured the ball without even stopping to think up a play. Tidus and Sora seemed to perform in perfect synchronization and never let their best friends stay a point or two ahead of them. After an hour and a half of playing, Sora's mother drove by the beach and told her smiling son and his best friend it was time for lunch.

"But Mom, the game is tied and Tidus and I have the ball!" The crystalline eyes pleaded.

"No 'buts,' Sora, I need help bringing these groceries into the house," Lily refuted, ending the conversation.

"Don't worry, Sora. We'll finish the game later, and beat them to a pulp!" Tidus assured as the four teens waded out of the water. Lily shuffled around in her car and threw two towels out of the window to her son and Riku. After drying off, the two teens hopped into the green car and immediately began discussing the game.

"Where did you learn those moves, Sora?" The sea-green-eyed teen began questioning.

"We learned them in gym yesterday," Sora replied carelessly.

"I recognized some of them from gym, but there were a few I'd never seen before," Riku continued.

"Well, Tidus and I came down here almost every day while you were at band camp and Wakka was training with the blitzball team. We came up with a few of them ourselves, and Tidus showed me some of Jecht's moves. We didn't use all of the moves in our repertoire today, though, so watch out!" Sora explained to his stunned friend.

"Some of those moves were Jecht's?" Riku finally blurted out. "And you mastered them in a week?"

"Well, we were motivated. Tidus wants to make the blitzball team and I didn't want to look like a fool in gym," the small boy explained to Riku. "I also wanted to be good when we played against Tidus and Wakka and not bring the team down."

Riku thought for a second and opened his mouth to speak when the car hit the curb of the driveway and bumped the teen's mouth shut.

"Okay! Let's get these groceries inside!" Lily exclaimed with unforeseen enthusiasm.

"Where did that energy come from?" The silver-haired teen whispered to his best friend, while the two were carrying groceries into the house.

"They put a new coffee shop into the grocery store, and I will bet anything my mom tried it out," Sora whispered in reply.

"I sure did! And it's just now kicking in! I feel like I could go for days," Lily butted in, after hearing the conversation with her caffeine-heightened hearing.

"Wow, that must've been some intense coffee if she heard our conversation from inside the house," Riku stated in awe.

"It was delicious," Sora's mother sang, her movements becoming faster every second.

"Mom, maybe you should sit down, we don't want you to hurt yourself. Or start moving so fast that you disappear, for that matter," Sora advised.

"Oh, I'm fine, don't worry about me. There are a couple more bags in the trunk, boys. Get to it!"

After the groceries were brought in and put in their proper places, Riku started on dinner while Lily retired to her bedroom to crash.

"At least she didn't stay that hyper for long," Sora commented from his favorite spot in the kitchen: the countertop. "That could have turned out horribly."

"Yeah, and she deserves the rest after a long week at work," Riku added.

The two boys chatted for the rest of the afternoon while Riku prepared their steak dinner. The teen chef finished at about three in the afternoon and declared, "Everything is done for now, I just need to let the steaks marinate for a little while and then I'll pop them in the oven to cook."

Sora rolled his eyes at the information and simply asked, "That's nice and all, Riku, but how much time does that give us?"

"I'll put them in the oven at about five o'clock. Is that what you wanted to hear?" Riku asked with a chuckle.

Sora's eyes lit up as he let out a giddy, "Yep!" and handed his best friend a coke from the refrigerator. The oceanic-eyes saw where his friend was heading but held some confusion at the simultaneously.

"What about your mom?" Riku questioned.

The chocolate covered head had already thought this through and decided it would be fine to practice while his mother was asleep.

"She's gonna be out for a while, she probably wouldn't wake up for the Apocalypse," the pianist replied. Riku was urgently rushed out of the door, just in case the Apocalypse did arrive and Lily woke up for it. Sora had to use his time wisely.

Riku ambled over to the cruddy swing set and sat upon the rusting swings. He was slightly more prepared this time as the swing set shaped time-machine propelled its victim into the previous year during his first week of concert band.

"_This is the first time you've been in this band," the director told his students. "Upperclassmen, this isn't the band we had last year. This isn't even the same band as our marching band last semester. We're reinventing the wheel in a sense. There will be rookies that play better than you and rookies that play worse than you, but you'll love them all the same. That said, rookies, don't hold back. If you're better than an upperclassman, don't be afraid to show it. A little healthy competition never hurt anyone. Shyness won't get you far in this band. _

_We'll help you if you need it, so don't be afraid to ask. Now, let's get started on a Concert B flat scale. One, two, three…"_

"_Umm, you mind mentioning your name?" One of the flutes questioned, teasing the young director._

"_Oh, I almost forgot. I'm your director, Balthier, and you will address me as such. Many of you know me from marching band, but school regulations force me to tell you my name again. That said, I don't want anyone calling me Mr. Balthier, and I should __**never**__ hear my last name mentioned. We're all friends here and I expect you to address me like a friend. Now, that B flat scale."_

_The band sounded halfway decent, or at least from Riku's perspective in the last half of the alto saxophone section. While playing the memorized scale, the aqua eyes scanned the room, happy to see the familiar faces. Balthier was correct: most of the people in concert band were from marching band, but there were a few new faces scattered throughout the room, looking terrified because they didn't know a soul in the band. If they did know someone, the person was in a different section across the band. The ocean eyes then found an anomaly: there were two people sitting at the piano. Riku knew one of them because the pianist had played the marimba in marching band and was an excellent musician. Riku had chatted with him a few times and the saxophonist knew the marimba player was a senior. However, the two turquoise orbs didn't recognize the blonde-haired boy playing the piano alongside the senior. Riku assumed the blonde teen to be a freshman like himself and wondered who he was. The class continued and sight-read through several pieces, and started a few that Balthier threw onto the floor, while screaming obscenities about the terrible piece. After the unneeded drama ended, the band _

_picked up a piece called "Suite in F Major" composed by Gustav Holst. While the instrumentalists sight-read the piece, Riku noticed the two pianists almost fighting over dominance of the black and white keys. The silver-haired freshman stopped playing to watch to epic battle unfold. Unfortunately, the rest of the band ceased playing one-by-one to witness the piano brawl. The two pianists didn't notice that their melodic struggle had quickly become the center of attention and that they were the only two students still playing. The vigorous clash continued and Riku felt his stomach twist into knots and coils._

"_Riku are you okay?" The pale teen turned and looked at the concerned girl sitting next to him. The aqua eyes studied Penelo's features and noted the sincere concern before replying carelessly, "I'll be fine."_

"_Why was I so upset by that blonde kid at the piano?" Riku thought quietly as Balthier brought the band to order. "It's because he forces life into the piece that he's playing. This kid isn't as graceful as Sora. Sora only acts as a medium for the music; he gives it a piece of his own soul and brings it to life. This kid is a Frankenstein and when he plays he forces the music to do his bidding, controls it and never lets it be free, he creates the piece only to destroy it. The music that this blonde kid makes is a monstrosity." The answer came out of nowhere. Riku looked around to find out who had answered his silent question, but no one was paying attention to him. The silver covered head hadn't thought of the situation in that light, but Riku soon agreed with the voice in his head. His explanation was the only reason all of the blood rushed from his already pale face when the blonde boy played._

"_Where did that voice come from?" Riku's brain questioned, attempting to draw a conclusion logically. "It had to be my own thoughts, but then again, it wasn't in my own voice."_

_The aquamarine eyes suddenly came into focus again and realized where they were. Riku scanned the room again and a quick wave of relief fell on him when he noticed that no one was aware of his brief departure. The slender hands were commanded to start moving the keys again, and his lungs filled up with air to their maximum capacity. Riku drifted through the rest of the class, letting his body do all of the work and keeping his mind on the question of the mysterious voice that had vanished as quickly as it had appeared._

Riku's vision ended and he jumped from the swing set as gracefully as he had the previous day. When he landed on his feet, he heard a simple word under the thud of his feet. The word felt like a violent gale had passed through his body, filled it up with noise and fervent action and then passed within a moment of its birth. After a second of waiting to make sure the soul-tornado that had shaken him to the core was not going to return and destroy him, Riku's internal light bulb flickered on as he recognized the statement spoken in the torrent.

"Heart."

"Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if yours is beating. I've been standing here waiting for you to come in _forever_, Riku!" Sora's voice rang out and pervaded Riku.

"It's warm and soft; fluttering like a bird," Riku thought as he snapped out of his trance and smiled at his friend.

"What time is it?" Riku inquired. His daydream had stolen the teen's concept of time.

"About three-thirty," Sora answered as he motioned for them to enter the kitchen.

"Cool, we've got plenty of time before I have to put the steaks in."

The two teens returned to the house and played video games to pass the time. After his experience with the swing set, Riku decided to start the conversation he had been practicing every moment he had been away from Sora.

"So, Seifer's in your World History class?"

"Yep, he's my partner for a project we're working on."

"What do you think of him?" Riku asked, no longer staring at the television, but looking directly at his best friend.

"He seems really nice. He's got a funny smile. I told him it looked like the Cheshire Cat's smile and I think that's more true when he's not here."

"Why's that?" Riku continued inquiring, trying to hide his envy.

"Because his smile stays with you even when he's gone. You know how the Cheshire Cat always disappears but his smile is the last thing to leave?"

"Yeah…"

"That's what Seifer's smile feels like. It stays in your head and doesn't go away until well after Seifer has left."

"Have you heard him play the piano?"

"Not yet, though I hear he's the best in the school."

"Ha, second best, now that you're there."

The two boys got onto lighter topics and played video games until a beeping sound came from the kitchen. Springing from his seat on the comfy couch, Riku proceeded to put the steaks in the oven and returned to find that his spiky-haired companion had killed him six more times during his absence. The crystalline eyes spotted the stunned look in their peripheral vision and decided to explain.

"You didn't press 'Pause,' Riku," Sora chuckled as he said this. While the Sora was focused on killing Riku for a seventh time, a square, tan throw pillow pegged the tan boy in the side of the head.

"Hey! I'm playing a game here!"

"So am I," Riku retorted with a devilish grin. If Sora hadn't been so interested in watching Riku's slender lips form the smirk, he would have imagined two small horns and a tail on his best friend. The blue orbs would have also noticed a second green pillow flying right at him and told the boy to duck. Sora snapped from his trance as his vision was engulfed by a hunter green blur.

"Mmph humph mmph…" Came from the head under the verdant pillow. Sora was on the ground with the pillow covering his face, making it extremely hard for Riku to understand him.

"Sora, open your mouth a little _wider_ when you speak," Riku stated smugly, pleased with himself that he had alluded to Alice in Wonderland.

"YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT!" Sora shouted with his mouth open as wide as it could open before his cheeks would rip.

"Oh, am I?" Riku dodged a dark blue pillow only to step into the path of the green one he had thrown earlier. The soaring pillow stopped dead center in Riku's face and slid down the teen's body where it hit the ground with a dull thud.

The aqua eyes scanned the room for pillows that could be potential weapons. Slender fingers grasped the blue one that had been previously dodged from its position on the ground while the teen smoothly kicked up the green pillow that had nailed him in the face seconds earlier. Sora was defenseless and the crystalline eyes closed for a moment and reopened to see the taller teen jumping on him. The smaller boy fell to the ground and squirmed while his best friend sat on him and repeatedly hit the small boy with the two pillows.

Sora somehow wiggled free of the wrath of his bigger friend and picked up another pillow. The cushions continued vaulting across the room for what seemed like only minutes. All action continued up until the second of two almost inaudible knocks tapped the front door. It stunned Riku that his younger friend caught the soaring tan pillow, while practically pirouetting and gliding to the unanswered door.

"This isn't over," Sora chimed while grinning at his best friend. The tan hands opened the door to see the Cheshire grin waiting patiently behind it.

"Hiya, Seifer! I like your hat," the cocoa-haired teen greeted.

"Hey, Sora. Sorry I'm a little early."

"No worries. Riku and I were just finishing up having a pillow fight," Sora explained as Seifer examined Riku attempting to pick up the living room.

"Hello, Riku," Seifer greeted with a smug smirk.

Riku stopped his cleaning frenzy for half a second to meet Seifer's icy blue eyes. For that half of a second, Riku was caught in the cold depths of the blonde's basilisk gaze. No sooner had the ocean-eyes recognized their entrapment then they blinked and snapped out of it.

"Hello, Seifer," Riku replied curtly.

"Do you need any help, Riku?" Seifer offered courteously. Riku picked up on the insincerity that his younger friend had apparently missed.

"No, you need to get started on that project."

"Thanks, Riku!" Sora skipped into the kitchen where the dining table sat cluttered with the various objects from the previous night's seminar in cross-making and called to Seifer, "We can work in here."

The two teens picked up where they had left off in history class and Riku finished cleaning up the living room. The silver-haired teen glided to the oven and pulled out the steaks and began to clear the table.

"Oh, Riku, those steaks smell divine!" Lily almost sang while floating into the kitchen.

"Thank you. Okay, everything is ready so let's set the table and start eating."

Riku knew that no matter who his best friend was with or what he was doing food always came first.

"FOOD!" Sora moved at almost twice his maximum speed. Riku blinked and the table was cleared of everything. Lily moved half a step and the dishes had magically disappeared 

from her hands and placed themselves on the table. Seifer had started to push his chair out and Sora was already first in line to receive his food.

"Okay, can we eat now?" Was the question that escaped the spiky-haired teen's mouth, but everyone in the room knew the answer.

The dinner passed by with idle conversation, mostly concerning Seifer to Riku's disappointment. The blonde was perfect in every way. He came from an excellent family, was a piano genius, and was at the top of his class. He was also well-traveled and wore all of the latest trends in clothing. No one could resist his charm and elegance.

No one but Riku that is.

The two pianists remained at the table to work while Riku washed the dishes and then shuffled into the living room with an air of depression about him. Lily was already sitting on the couch when the silver-haired teen plopped down next to her.

"He seems like a good kid," Lily started, confident her and Riku were out of Seifer's earshot.

"From what you know of him," Riku loudly replied with a snort. The pale teen didn't care if his best friend or the blonde in the other room heard the conversation.

"Is there something I should be worried about, Riku?" Lily questioned, knowing the teen's comment was based on his dislike of the other sophomore more than actual fact.

"No, nothing to be concerned about. For _now_," Riku admitted with defeat, but emphasizing the last word.

The big wheel spun around on the television after the conversation ended. The disc's vibrant colors put Riku into a slight trance where he was no longer staring at the television but beyond it. The teen's ears no longer heard the letters guessed by the contestants or the witty comments from the host, Pat.

"Jealousy feels nice."

The voice came from nowhere and nearly gave the turquoise-eyed teen premature heart-failure.

"It's so basic; instinctual; primal. I can't think of a better feeling right now."

"_Who are you?_" Was the first thing Riku thought but before the words escaped his mouth the voice began again.

"I'm no one of consequence. For _now_."

The voice said it with a familiarity. The pale sophomore noticed the obvious emphasis placed on the last word, meant to mock his earlier snide comment. But the voice also sounded like it had existed before now. Riku ran through a list of his friends in his head.

"Nope." That was Riku thinking the voice was Kairi.

"No." Selphie.

"Nada." Wakka.

"Wrong." Tidus.

Then everything went silent when Riku's mind fell upon the thought of his best friend.

"_Sora?_" Riku thought.

"…"

"_But your voice is different. It's darker. Still as fluid, but it's been through a harsher life._"

"Maybe. It _is_ your life, Riku."

"_Does this have something to do with Seifer?_"

"I don't know, but I was drawn to your envy of him."

"_Why am I the only one to hear you? Are you telepathic?_"

"No. I've always been with you. You just didn't need me until now, so when I felt the strong pull of that delicious jealousy, I just had to come have a taste."

"_So I'm crazy? Is that what you're saying?_"

"Well, not necessarily. Some people are just born this way."

"_Born with another person in their head?! I've never heard of that outside of an asylum._"

"You're not crazy, Riku. Geeze, I'm just here to help you."

"_Help me do what?_"

"Win Sora back, of course."

The voice said it with such confidence that it took Riku a moment to even remember that he hadn't lost his best friend in the first place.

"_I haven't lost Sora._"

"Yet."

"_He'll always be there for me._"

"Just like your mom?"

And that did it. Riku forced his eyes to focus on the once again spinning wheel and began singing the "Star Spangled Banner" as loud as he could in his head. He even added the "boom-crash" to make sure there was no moment of silence for the wicked voice to start again. When the final "flip-hold" was finished the voice spoke with clarity, echoing throughout Riku's body and soul, "Don't worry, Riku, I'll wait for when you need me. And you will need me sooner or later. No one can escape their own darkness."

XXX

Author's Note: ok so school started like two weeks ago and i finally decided that this chapter has been sitting unfinished for way too long in my notebook, so i finally decided last week to finish it. well, i hope u liked it! and don't forget to review, cause i'm sure i messed up something while typing it up! thanks a bunch and i'll try my hardest to put out more chapters sometime soon!! oh, and i may or may not be starting a new fic soon...we'll see what happens!


	6. Pepper in Some Drama

A/N: sorry this is a slightly long chapter, but i really wanted (or needed) to get the plot moving, and the best way i could think of doing that was to just start writing until the plot moved. and because i should prolly do it for every chapter (tho i don't...) disclaimer: i only barely own the plot, but none of the characters or anything of the such. now please enjoy and remember to REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!

Chapter Six:

Pepper in Some Drama

The weekend passed with nothing of interest. Riku was surprised that by the time Monday morning came around he could barely imagine the voice that had penetrated his mind two days earlier. It was becoming apparent that routine would take over the two friends' lives, and with each free second the teens had together, they thought of new ways to break the imminent routine. Monday passed with little grief, save that Riku was jealous of Sora receiving an "A" on his project with Seifer. Riku checked himself quickly after remembering the voice and decided to be happy that his best friend had obtained such a high grade on his first high school. Tuesday proved less eventful on Riku's end, but Sora was becoming a nervous wreck. The chocolate-haired boy was gradually breaking down over his upcoming piano lesson where he would for his best friend.

"It'll be fine. Riku'll always be your best friend, and I doubt you'll play as horribly as you believe," the bouncy girl assured. Sora was again teaching Yuffie French and the topic had randomly come up.

"But…" Sora started before the beagle-eyed teen cut him off abruptly.

"No! No 'buts,' Sora. This is something you need to do."

"Why?"

"Because I wanna hear you play too!"

The rest of the day flew by and the dam of curiosity finally burst while Riku and Sora were walking home together.

"What's wrong with you, Sora? You haven't been yourself all day."

The small boy stopped walking and stared an apparently interesting point on the ground. After thinking about the question and his answer the crystalline orbs were shut tight behind their lids, while the cute, little mouth barely whispered the response.

"I'm scared about tomorrow, Riku."

"About playing for me?"

"…"

"You don't have to-"

"No, I _need_ to do this. That's a part of life, right? Getting over your fears…" Sora trailed off after this and noticed it had started raining because there were wet spots sporadically appearing next to his tennis shoes. The boy expected it to start pouring in a minute to spite him. That's what island rains were like: it started raining spontaneously and ended just as fast. What the tan teen had not expected was the hug he received from his best friend.

"Shhh…There's no need to cry about it, silly," Riku whispered gently into his best friend's ear.

Sora unconsciously reached up and felt his eyes. So it hadn't been raining after all. The blue-eyed boy felt embarrassed by the outburst but didn't feel like breaking the embrace just yet. Riku felt natural and warm when he hugged his younger friend and Sora never wanted to let go. Unfortunately, Riku had noticed the cease in tears and forced himself away to comfort his friend.

"You okay now? Let's head home and get you a P.B. and J. and some chocolate milk."

Riku's plan had worked perfectly because the tan boy perked up immediately at the thought of food.

The boys at their afternoon snack and Sora pushed his friend into the backyard as usual. Sora began practicing and didn't stop until the alert ears heard the approach of his mother's car up the driveway. The sapphire orbs glanced at the clock and Sora immediately felt terrible. He had been practicing for an hour already and had all but forgotten about Riku. The worst part was that the azure eyes still hadn't seen their vision yet. Sora stomped to the back door to let his best friend in and stomped back into the living room to take his anger out on video games. Riku decided that this was because of the music Sora was practicing and let the matter go. The two boys spend the rest of the evening together before Riku had to go home for the night. After the long walk back to Riku's house and the customary 'later,' Riku turned to unlock his front door when he received a hug and heard, "Thanks, Riku."

By the time the silver-haired teen had uttered his slightly confused, "No problem," the embrace had ended and Sora was already at the sidewalk heading back to his house.

"_What a weird kid._"

"_Shut up,_" Riku thought back in surprise at the voice in his head. The internal argument ended there as the silver-haired teen slammed the front door to his house.

x x x

Riku noticed the anxiety in his best friend on the walk to school that Wednesday morning. Kairi and Selphie felt it rolling off of the normally cheerful boy in surges. Even Tidus felt uncomfortable around Sora when the two had English together. Yuffie attempted to calm Sora down and Lulu tried to reach out and asked the fretful freshman what was wrong after French class had ended.

"Nothing's the matter," Sora spat out. The small boy hurried from the room and slammed into Riku as he was turning a corner.

"Woah, Sora, slow down, I was just headed to meet you."

For the first time in his life, Sora stood up, apologized to Riku, and zoomed off to his locker without another word. The chocolate-haired boy tried to lose his best friend in the crowded hallways but Riku easily kept up with Sora's pace. The frantic teen arrived at his locker, replaced his books and headed off to lunch. Riku was silent the entire time, believing that Sora needed to work this out on his own.

"_Or have a heart attack. Whichever comes first,_" Riku's inner voiced joked.

"_Quiet,_" Riku thought with an authoritative tone. The pale teen's inner voice had been commenting on everything the entire day. Riku simply started to ignore the voice and worry about his best friend, but it was becoming more and more difficult as the day progressed.

Lunchtime ended and the group of teens felt sick afterwards from the anxious vibes Sora was emitting. The perky teen barely chuckled at Cid's jokes in math and hadn't answered any questions by the end of religion.

The walk home proved longer than Sora originally expected. The group walked past Selphie's house first and then Kairi's and finally the two teens dropped off their bags at Sora's house and began to walk to the inevitable piano lesson. Sora stopped three feet in front of Fran's red brick home, where he stood among the snapdragons and marigolds in her front garden. Sora's face portrayed a range of emotion, the most prominent being that he didn't want to move past the cute garden, and felt more comfortable among the daisies instead of inside. This continued even when Fran opened the door and greeted her student and Riku. It took some pushing and reassuring and even an accidental peck on the cheek on Riku's part to move his frightened friend inside. Luckily, Fran had already returned to the living room to set up the piano and the teacher didn't see Riku slip on one of cobblestones that made up her walkway and accidently plant a quick kiss on his younger friend's cheek. After that Sora seemed to forget where he was, and Riku only had to deal with dead-weight and not Sora's resisting legs.

"Come on, Sora, this can't be worse than vampires," Riku whispered jokingly.

"This is way worse, Riku," Sora whimpered back with a grim tone.

"_You'd think he was marching to his death from the tremble in his voice,_" the voice laughed, interrupting Riku's train of thought.

Riku ignored the person in his head and focused solely on sitting Sora at the piano bench without fainting. The pianist finally sat down, steadied by Fran's firm grip on his shoulder. The teacher motioned for Riku to sit on the couch with the piano between the two best friends. Fran bent over and whispered quietly into her student's ear and Riku immediately noticed Sora relax as he stared at the black and white keys.

Naturally, the voice in Riku's head questioned the scene that was unfolding, "_What did she say to him? You couldn't get him to calm down all day and she does it in five seconds. God you suck at life._"

"_Did I ask for your opinion? No, then let's keep it that way. I don't want to miss hearing Sora play,_" Riku retorted. Sora raised his head and the sapphire eyes caught Riku's from his position directly in front of him. Fran let go of Sora, confident he would stay up, and floated to the couch, where she gently sat down next to Riku. The turquoise eyes still saw a hint of apprehension and the pale teen gave a warm smile to his best friend. After a gentle nod from Fran, Sora bit his lower lip and began by playing his favorite note. With that out of the way, the prodigy pressed the first note that was written on the page. Which was the wrong one. Sora started panicking, but met Riku's oceanic gaze again and the world was left behind. Sora stopped everything he was doing and found his place again.

"_Making a mistake in front of an audience: Check. Now that that's out of the way, I can do this,_" the optimistic pianist thought. Sora relaxed immensely and saw the compassion in his friend's sea-green eyes. After resetting his fingers and scanning over his music again, the prodigy began for a second time and the music seemed to flow out of him. His stress dissipated by the end of the first note and the azure eyes found the courage to look at his best friend. When Sora's eyes met Riku's during that miniature recital the shy clouds in Sora's mind dissolved away and Riku's warm expression shone through. Sora felt his soul move into the piece and waited for the scene to play itself before him. The only scene the prodigy witnessed, though, was his best friend sitting on the white couch across from him. At that moment, everything melted away except for Riku, Sora and the piano from which the music emanated. Sora rocked back and forth letting the music take over his very form, control him, and becoming a medium for his sonata. Riku's face had moved from stunned to pure elation and the setting sun that washed over the room from the window behind the prodigy sparkled off of the aquamarine eyes. The _Moonlight Sonata_ filled the room and reverberated through Riku's soul. The sapphire orbs finally realized why Fran had given him this piece. Sora understood why he hadn't seen the melodic vision for this piece. Sora's vision was Riku, sitting in the setting sunlight, and adoring him. The silver hair gently undulated with the wind that blew in from the open window behind the pianist. Sora's crystalline eyes weren't the only ones to see what the music wanted. The music blinded the turquoise eyes for a moment butt when the teen's eyes focused Riku saw a dark beach, the black waves crashing soundlessly on the obsidian sand, the pale moon illuminating two figures cuddling on the shore. A silent wind moved the silvery hair of one of the figures while the brown points of his companion simply swayed with the cool breeze. The snow-white sentinel and its twinkling comrades were the only objects to witness the hushed kiss that was exchanged on the dark coast that night. The two teens were pulled from their visions softly and naturally as the sun greeted them and the song came to its final notes.

Fran had long since left the room to let the two boys soak up the experience in privacy. Sora beamed his signature grin as Riku responded with a warm smile. No one talked, but neither teen felt the need to say anything, seeing as the music had said everything that needed to be said. The only thing that broke the silence was the cheerful chirping of the songbirds from the trees outside. Sora finally released the music from his mind and the pair felt relieved that nothing horrible had happened.

"Sora."

"Yeah?"

"Your music shames the songbirds in the trees."

"I doubt that, Riku, but thanks anyways."

And that was all that needed to be said. Fran returned and handed Sora a new sheet of music before the two best friends stood up and bid the piano teacher farewell.

The walk home was considerably different from the walk to the piano lesson. Before, the anxiety had been nearly palpable, but now the calm wind pushed white, cotton clouds across the azure sky and Riku and Sora strolled home in peace. Neither noticed the waves crashing against the golden sand or the drops of rain off in the distance. They heard the silence between all of the noise and the serenity in the silence. The two pairs of ears heard the natural joy that flows through the world and nothing could drown it out.

x x x

After dinner was finished and the dishes were cleaned, Lily finally brought up the question that had buzzed in her head like an angry, africanized bee since her son had returned home earlier that afternoon.

"So, how was your piano lesson today?"

'Perfect,' was the only response Lily could draw out of Sora on any aspect of the lesson, so she moved onto her son's best friend.

"How did he sound, Riku?"

"Perfect."

Lily thought about giving up after that reply but a mother's persistence is one of her qualities.

"Do I get to hear you practice now?" Lily continued, attempting to acquire some information out of her son.

"Sure," the prodigy replied almost instantly.

"Really?" Lily half screamed. She had never expected such an easy win. "_Too easy,_" the mother thought to herself.

"What's the catch?"

"No catch. After playing in front of Riku today, I can play in front of anyone. Just give me a couple of minutes to look over the music."

The brown spikes bounced as Sora skipped out of the room to his piano. Lily made sure her son was out of sight and earshot before turning to Riku for further questioning.

"What the hell happened at that piano lesson today, Riku?" Lily whispered with a slight his in her voice.

"I don't know. I guess all of his fears have left him, though I would guess that it will return by tomorrow morning."

Lily glided into the piano room and leaned lightly against the wall. Riku simply sat on the floor sine the room lacked chairs and watched his friend press his favorite note on the piano. The prodigy took a deep breath and looked at the music he received earlier that day. After a moment of complete silence the small front room was suddenly filled with vibrant sound as the teen prodigy moved with the music. The sound bursting with spice and flare, Riku felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead and a tingle on his tongue. The song ended faster than expected, with long arpeggiated chords leading up to the final notes at the end. Lily stood by her wall, stunned at what she had only imagined, while Riku recovered faster, due to his experience with the overwhelming emotions Sora brought out of people when he played. Sora stood up and Riku smiled at him.

"That felt spicy, what's the name of it?" Riku asked delicately so he didn't put Lily into cardiac arrest.

"It's _Habanera_ from Carmen."

"Huh."

Riku stood up and got three glasses of cold milk to soothe the pianist and his audience's throats. After Lily downed hers and slowly moved into the living room to sit, she spoke with a slightly hoarse voice.

"I'd hate to hear you play a funeral march, Sora."

"It gets easier to handle over time," Riku comforted.

"But it looks like I should have played something else. I'm beginning to wonder if you'll ever be able to taste anything again, Mom," the prodigy joked lightly.

Everyone made a full recovery while watching their nightly game shows. The living room bounced with energy when the three 'contestants' shouted out the answers, jumped and screamed when they were correct, and sighed and moaned when a wrong answer was produced. Sora's laugh floated through the house when Riku answered one of the questions and was completely wrong. Riku's smirk burned into Sora's sapphire eyes when the spiky-haired boy's answer was incorrect. After the evening ritual was complete and the two teens had finished their homework, Riku said goodbye to Lily and headed home.

"That was fun, I love Jeopardy," Sora commented with a smile. "I hope I can go on it someday."

"Heh. Yeah, but you would end up breaking the buzzer from pressing it too hard," Riku joked. Sora stuck his tongue out and made faces at his friend. Riku simply ignored his companion as they turned the street where Riku lived.

"Hey, Sora," Riku practically whispered with a stern look on his face. "Thanks for letting me listen to you today. I know it was hard for you."

"Heh, you know, Riku, every song has its own life when a person plays it," Sora replied, leaving Riku puzzled from the seemingly random comment. "The musician practices hard to feel the heartbeat, thoughts, emotions and everything else that is needed to bring the piece to life. When he finally achieves this, it usually only affects the musician performing the work. If the person is an expert, however, they can show others their creation and the life they bring into the music."

The tan boy stopped here, in the middle of the dark, empty street and stared with crystalline love at his best friend.

"I see what the sheet of music wants me to see. This usually happens when I first start practicing a piece; I begin to see a blurry image, like looking through a foggy window, or little bits, like a puzzle that's missing quite a few pieces. With enough practice, the fog dissipates and the puzzle pieces come into place and I see an entire scene that relates to the music perfectly. The scene unravels and plays out before me every time I play that music again. This last piece proved to be difficult, though, because I never saw the scene, until I played for you." The unforgettable smile flew onto Sora's face and left Riku still slightly confused. "So I suppose I should be thanking you."

The aqua eyes gazed at his friend while the slender mouth simply replied with, "You're welcome."

The two teens finally arrived at Riku's house, where the silver-haired teen said goodnight and entered his house. As the brown spikes bounced lazily down the street and the cute mouth whistled a familiar tune, Sora thought about his vision today and remembered Riku's gorgeous eyes and his joyful smile. Little did the blue-eyed boy know that the two eyes were following him down the road accompanied by the same joyful smile.

x x x

Everyone noticed a remarkable change in the chocolate-haired teen's demeanor the following day and it seemed like the whole school had been under some horrible spell twenty-four hours ago. The rest of the week seemed to be extraordinarily easy and nothing fazed the perky boy considering the mountain he had just conquered.

School began to pick up and weeks rolled by filled with concertos, sonatas, marches and many more sheets of music. Sora decided that to truly claim he was victorious over his fear he would have to practice in front of Riku. This brought a halt to Riku's fieldtrips though his memories, to his relief, and the silken-haired teen began to record Sora's 'visions' for the piano pieces he played. The prodigy's playing continually stunned Riku and the sophomore never tired of hearing his friend practice. The practice sessions continued week after week until the middle of October when Riku posed a question to Sora after he finished a version of _William Tell_.

"Sora, have you ever thought about auditioning for concert band next semester?"

"You know I couldn't play in front of all of those people, Riku. I still have trouble playing in front of you."

"Yeah, but you also said that you could never play for me and here we are."

"We'll see. It'll be difficult, and I'd need some hefty motivation but I'll try."

"'Do or do not. There is no 'try.''"

"'Wise in the ways of the force you are.'"

The pair laughed and joked some more before Sora started practicing again. Lily walked in quietly after arriving home from work and sat to the left of Riku in one of the two new, yellow chairs. The mother was familiar with the daily ritual: Sora plays, Riku scribes, they joke, repeat process until practice is over or dinner. Lily was in awe by the devotion Riku had given Sora now that the older teen had heard her son play. The two friends practiced their routine for at least an hour and a half every day and despite that fact, Riku never tired of listening to Sora play. Riku had filled nearly half of a note book recording Sora's scenes since he had first played for the aqua-eyed teen.

After Sora finished _William Tell_ and the final notes dissipated into the ruddy afternoon sunlight, Lily felt a burst of energy and began working on dinner immediately. Riku chuckled inwardly as Sora began describing his scene.

"It was way clearer this time," the perky prodigy started. "It begins by showing a huge clearing in the middle of a forest. The clearing has a whole bunch of wild flowers and there are birds chirping and the sun is bright and smiling down on everything."

"Woah, Sora, slow down, I can't write that fast without my fingers falling off."

And that's how the days went. Riku finished his first notebook the week before Halloween and decided it was time to push Sora to broaden his horizons yet again.

"You know, fall is all about change," Riku started, making sure his comment sounded careless enough that Sora could never pin anything back on his silver-haired friend. The two teens were walking past the yellow beach and the glittering water when Riku continued while flipping his hair, "The leaves change color, the weather gets colder, animals start storing food for the winter."

"Yeah, I love all of the pretty colors on the main land this time of year. Luckily, the thermometer drops only by a few degrees here. I hate the cold."

"I know. But this is a good time for people to follow the influences of the season, ya know?" With a look that betrayed his confusion, instead of hiding it as Sora had originally intended, Riku continued his allusion, "I'm saying this is a good time for us to change too. How 'bout we tell each other something to try for the rest of fall?"

The hesitance apparent in his voice and while fiddling nervously with his shirt, Sora replied with a nearly inaudible, "Sure."

"Okay, you go first, challenge me to anything, but make sure it's relevant. No 'Dress like a girl' or stuff like that," Riku instructed.

"Though you would make a very good girl, Riku," Sora complimented as a smirk formed on his face. The tan boy thought for a few minutes and after passing several identifying landmarks that proved they were getting closer and closer to Sora's house the brunette finally decided.

"How about you make a new friend every week? You're usually so quiet and I don't want you to be lonely when I'm not around."

This simple suggestion was followed by unfathomable silence. Riku waded through his thoughts and considered every angle before finally accepting that if it were anyone but Sora, they would be trying to get rid of him. The problem was that it _was_ Sora, and he would never need an ulterior motive for the dare the prodigy had given Riku. Sora just wanted his best friend to be happy, even when the sapphire-eyed boy was gone.

The pale teen decided that the silence had to end and agreed to the terms.

"Fine, but mine is going to be tougher."

"I can take anything you deal, Riku." Sora's ordinarily adorable face shifted to an impish grin.

"You have to audition for concert band. The auditions are after school every day until the day before Halloween, and the list is put up that afternoon and the main condition is that you _have_ to get in."

"Hah! I could do your dare with my hands tied behind my back, Riku!"

"And how would you audition if you can't play the piano?"

"Easy."

"What? You would play with your feet? Or your tongue?"

"Interesting thought, but not as comical. Certainly more ironic, though."

"Nice vocab. words, Sora, but you still haven't explained yourself."

"Well, I meant for this to be an early birthday present, but I guess I have to tell you."

"Yeah?"

"I've already auditioned!"

"What? When?"

"Yesterday, when you stayed after for that test. Seifer had suggested it during history, and-"

"Wait, Seifer suggested this? Why?"

"I don't know, he said he would like to hear me play, and when he mentioned your birthday later that day, I decided it would be a good present."

The brown front door was Sora's only obstacle to his afternoon chocolate milk and the spiky-haired boy's patience was being tested as Riku stood there contemplating the scenario he had just heard.

"So you did this for Seifer?"

"Riku, you're so dense sometimes. I just told you this was your present. Seifer just suggested that I audition. Now can I please go get my chocolate milk?"

"Sure…"

As the freshman bounced into his house and put together his favorite afternoon snack, Riku thumped slowly into the living room and continued to wonder what Seifer's motives were. Sora hopped down onto the couch next to his confused friend and said with a mouth full of peanut butter and jelly sandwich, "This is a great show! I love how the director uses the black screen to portray that the T.V. isn't on until you press the 'POWER' button!"

The comment snapped Riku from his trance and he smiled at his friend's sarcasm.

"You wanna practice today?"

"Nah, I feel like taking a day off, and just being lazy.

The latest blitzball stats filled the screen and just as Riku had started to read where the Aurochs stood the teen heard something he had completely forgotten about.

"_So, still jealous that Seifer has some influence over Sora?_"

"_What?_" Riku thought back. The teen suddenly noticed the truth in what his inner voice had said. As the teen's eyes drifted shut, they snapped open to a large black span of space that seemed endless.

"_You're jealous that Seifer can convince Sora to audition when you couldn't," the voice continued, but as Riku turned around his aquamarine eyes finally found the source. Behind him had been standing a teen that looked about a year younger than him with spiky hair that was a dirty blonde color. The teen's eyes pierced an icy blue, but the two orbs held a familiarity that Riku couldn't place his finger on. "Huh. You're also jealous that Seifer thought of the birthday excuse before you. Your birthday isn't until December and it's not even Halloween yet. You're so messed up, Riku."_

_Riku began to use everything in his arsenal to silence the boy standing before him but for every 'Shut up!' the silver-haired screamed, his dark companion chuckled while replying with a snide comment and continuing with a thorough analysis of the aqua-eyed teen's emotions._

"_You're in my world now, Riku, meaning you're gonna have to try a helluva lot harder than that," the boy retorted. "Now this confusion you're feeling is interesting. What's there to be confused about?"_

"_I don't understand how Sora could say 'yes' so easily," Riku found himself blurting out easier than he had intended._

"_Well, you could always ask him, but since you're a pussy, I'd have to say that it's because he either loves you or he loves Seifer. It's really that simple."_

"_Why are you telling me this?"_

"_Because I can't survive without you. Yet at least. If you lose hope and go and off yourself then I die too. Ya dig?"_

"_Then why tell me that Sora might be in love with Seifer? Wouldn't that just make me give up right then?"_

"_No, not with you. If Sora were in love with Seifer, hypothetically, your jealousy would immediately take over and you'd either kill Seifer and possibly Sora, or you'd decide Sora wasn't worth the wait. Either way, I still survive, and that's all that really matters."_

"_Sora will always be worth the wait. Now shut the hell up."_

_Riku could see his other half start to walk off into the distance, but as if just to spite the silver-haired teen's relief, a little comment cut through the pervading darkness, "Riku, you don't need to deny the fact that Sora will leave you one day. But there's no need to worry; I'll always be there for you."_

"Riku! Riku!"

The blue-eyed boy's voice chimed through the darkness and the aqua eyes fluttered open to the tan face inches from his own.

"What's up?"

"You looked like you were having a bad dream. I thought I should wake you up."

"Oh. Thanks, Sora."

x x x

The list for concert band was put up by the end of the day before Halloween and Riku was elated when he saw Sora's name on the list as first chair pianist. Unfortunately, when the pale teen found his best friend, the spiky-haired boy was already talking with Seifer.

"_Looks like you're a little late to the punch, Riku._"

"_Gah, not you again._"

"_Yep. You __**are**__ sorta stuck with me, Riku._"

"_Well, the least you could do is tell me your name._"

"_That is the least I could do, but I doubt that will happen. Maybe you should try guessing it! That'll be entertaining._"

Riku had been walking to class when his inner voice posed the challenge. During a moment of pure insight, Riku's face lit up as he thought, "_Rumpelstiltskin!_"

"_Too cliché,_" the voice replied with a chuckle. "_How about if you guess the first letter? Is that easy enough?_"

"_Sure. 'A?'_"

"_Nope._"

"'_B?'_"

"_Nada._"

"'_C?'_"

"_No, and you can't just go through the alphabet like that._"

"_Changing the rules now?_"

"_No, just refining them. Now guess._"

As the teacher began the lecture, Riku thought about a letter to guess. Picking up a piece of paper to make it seem like he was taking notes, the aqua-eyed teen wrote down all twenty-six letters in a seemingly sporadic order, closed his eyes, and pointed to one.

"Well, Riku?"

"'R?'"

"I'm sorry, but this is chemistry, not English class. Now maybe you could tell me a molecular weight that isn't a letter, Yuffie?"

"_Good guess, Riku. You were right._"

"_Really? So you'll tell me your name now?_"

"_Yep. The name's Roxas._"

"_Well, it's nice to finally meet you, Roxas._"

x x x

"So, Sora, guess what?" The blonde inquired.

"Chicken butt!" The bouncy freshman screamed in the middle of the hallway.

"Close, but no cigar. You got first chair in concert band next semester and I'm second chair!" Seifer explained.

"That's awesome, Seifer, but how was that close?"

"It's just a phrase, silly."

"I can't wait to tell Riku! Where is he any way? He usually meets me and walks to class with me."

As the glittering eyes scanned the hallway, the teen spotted a shimmer of silver whipping around a corner and disappearing. A pout appeared under the sapphire eyes and Sora's mind was buzzing with questions and excuses as to why his best friend had ditched him.

"Speaking of Riku, can you do a favor for me? When you see him next, I'd like you to ask him something for me. Ya know, since I gave you the suggestion to join band an all. It's nothing really."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure…"

X X X

Sooooo much going on!!! yay! i finally go the plot to thicken like a nice beef stew! i'm soo proud of sora too!! if only riku would have the balls to ask him out...oh well...and i hope you guys like plot twists cause there's gonna be a big one next chapter, but i'm not gonna tell until the next chapter is up. it'll be soon, tho because i'm finding that i really want to get this done soon and start other things (not that i can't write two stories at once, it just seems slightly overbearing to me...). ok, well, i'm glad i finally came out and told everyone that Roxas was Riku's dark side and NOT ansem! hahahah. trust me, it'll make sense in the end :D oh and sorry about the cliff hanger at the end, but i wanted the next chapter to start out a certain way so i had to do that. i'm sure you'll forgive me


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